


Fix. This.

by charis2770



Series: Yours. His. Ours. [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftercare, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst, Arguing, Awkwardness, Begging, Biting, Bottom Keith, Bottom Lance, Boys Kissing, Canon Pidge, Coming Untouched, Consensual Kink, Crying, Developing Relationship, Different from most Shklance because they all get together at the same time, Edging, Fighting, Get Together fic for all three of them at the same time, Guilt, Insecurity, It doesn't happen in chapter one though, Keith and Lance being brats, Keith's feels are awkward, Kink Negotiation, Lance cries when things are intense, Lance gets wrecked, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, Like nobody was a couple first and someone gets added later, M/M, Meaning She/Her pronouns, More tags to be added when this heats up, Multi, Mutual Pining, Nobody left out at first and brought in later, Oral Sex, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Pidge has had enough, Pining, Polyamory, Promise, Shiro is REALLY into aftercare, Size Difference, Size Kink, Slash, Spanking, Spitroasting, Suggestion of corporal punishment, Takes place in Season One, They're ALL sad and lonely instead, This surprises no one, Top Shiro, Yaoi, as usual, attention-seeking behavior, but not in a bad way, open discussion of poly relationships, shklance - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-11
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-10-17 12:45:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 47,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10594290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/charis2770/pseuds/charis2770
Summary: Keith and Lance bicker and fight as they've always done. Shiro's pretty much doing his best to ignore it at this point because nothing else has worked. He's also trying not to think about either one of them too hard because superior officers shouldn't look at their men that way. His dreams give no shits. Then one night, after they've helped fend off a Galran attack on a new planet and met its inhabitants, Lance and Keith get into an actual fight at the welcome feast where Allura is working very hard to secure a new alliance. Shiro manages to save the day, but he finally realizes that things have to change. He just has no clue what to do. After the things he'd done while in the hands of the Galrans, he can't bear the thought of resorting to violence. Pidge, however, knows things. And has had enough.(Author's note: So sorry. This is my fic where I'm not using present tense, and I had a really hard time not slipping back into it. I think I've gone back and caught most of it, so it should read better now!)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kalix1395](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalix1395/gifts).



> This story is a gift for my amazing follower, Kalix1395, who has been with me for a very long time and always been so supportive! Thanks so much for this suggestion. I'm having a blast writing it. I'm a huge Voltron nerd, and gonna show my age here by letting everybody know that I actually watched the original on television when it aired. I actually like the new one better. Because Shiro is beautiful and deserves love.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at:
> 
> Charis2770.tumblr.com. That blog will explain who I am, a little about my work, and link you to my other blogs as well, if you're interested in finding out more about the kink I write and why

They were at it again. He hadn’t even noticed what had started it this time. Not that it mattered, really. Keith and Lance would always find something to fight about, the smallest thing would do. A look, an insult (even an imagined one), even the expression on one of their faces would do to set them off. Shiro sighed and shoveled more of the green goo that passed for food around here into his mouth, doing his best to ignore them. That was the best way to handle undesirable, childish behavior in his opinion. He’d been taught that children misbehaved out of a desire for attention, so if the behavior did not achieve the desired result, the unruly ones would soon tire of the behavior and it would stop. Not that Keith and Lance were children of course. They were both young men, paladins of Voltron and deserving of their titles. Their courage and skill couldn’t be denied. They were both good fighters, with the musculature to prove it. Strong, toned, straight of limb, with taut skin and….

 

No. He pushed those thoughts away, horribly ashamed of himself for allowing them to sneak in, even for a moment. Even though he was human. Mostly, he thought, glancing bitterly at his Galran prosthetic, then ignoring it resolutely as he always tried to. He  _ was _ human, and human beings had desires sometimes. It was normal. And that was okay, he could accept it about himself, so long as he didn’t act on it. It didn’t matter that his years as a captive had been so lonely. It didn’t matter that underneath the normal, healthy desires of his 24-year-old body, Shiro strongly suspected that there were also  _ feelings. _ He was their superior officer as the black lion, the head of Voltron, and he would  _ never _ take advantage of any man under his command. He sighed and tried to finish eating as quickly as possible.

 

Coran was trying to reason with the two bickering paladins before they came to blows, but it didn’t seem that he was getting very far. The insults were growing steadily more personal and more infuriated. Finally, in despair, Coran turned to Shiro, his voice cutting through the young man’s resolute inattention.

 

“Master Shiro,” he cried sharply, “control your men before they ruin everyone’s supper and damage the dining hall. Please!”

 

Shiro looked up and flushed a little guiltily when he realized that Lance had just snatched up a plateful of goo, holding it in the palm of his hand much like a pie he was about to smash into Keith’s face while the other was reaching for a chair. Whether he planned to use it as a shield or an oversized bludgeoning weapon was anyone’s guess.

 

“Keith. Lance. Stand down,” barked Shiro. “Now!”

 

They both flinched at the irritation in his voice and slowly set down the unoffending objects, then slammed back down into their seats with ill grace, though both sets of eyes slid in Shiro’s direction a little guiltily. He sighed again.

 

“You can both take supper alone in your quarters for the rest of the week since you can’t manage to dine like civilized beings. Hunk, Pidge and I haven’t done anything to deserve to have to have our meals interrupted by your bickering,” he said quietly.  Coran let out a huge sigh of relief. Pidge smirked into her plate of food, and Hunk just looked uncomfortable as he always did when his friends argued or fought. Keith stared fixedly at his own plate.

 

“Sorry Shiro,” he muttered softly. Shiro resolutely did not look in his direction. He was uncomfortably aware of the way Keith looked up to him. Sometimes it felt a little too much like worship, and Shiro was the last person in this galaxy or any other to deserve that. Lance flushed and glared at the table, refusing to look at  _ anybody _ .

 

“He started it,” he muttered sullenly. Shiro paid no attention to this, finished his meal, then shoved away from the table and stalked out of the dining hall, relieved to put them behind him. 

 

****

 

His dreams did nothing to help his determination to ignore either his fellow paladins’ behavior  _ or _ the stray thoughts that seemed determined to intrude, no matter how hard he tried to school his mind against them. Another came that very night. In the beginning, it seemed his subconscious mind felt some odd need to relive the events at supper. Keith and Lance were bickering again, exchanging insults, with Coran attempting to stop them. It changed quickly though, because Coran didn’t appeal to Shiro for help, and once Lance had his plate in hand, he lunged at Keith and smooshed the mess into Keith’s face. Green, sticky goop stuck in his hair and slid down his face. His dark blue eyes flashed fire and, instead of a chair, he picked up his own plate and flung its contents on Lance, leaving the other boy splattered with vibrant green mess as well. They stood, panting and staring at each other for a few seconds, then lunged. Dream Shiro had had enough. He got up from his chair and snatched the snarling, hollering, grappling young men by the backs of their collars, yanking them apart. They both goggled up at him in surprise. Without a word, he dragged them both from the room. Pidge’s poorly suppressed giggles echoed after them as they exited the room. Lance and Keith both struggled to get away, but Shiro found it easy to drag them down the halls and into the showers. Turning one of them on full blast, he thrust both of his comrades under the icy spray unceremoniously. Their twin screeches of shock and outrage meant nothing to him.

 

“Strip,” he snarled at them, ignoring their protests. In the dream, they had surprisingly little to say about this, and both began to obey him instantly, peeling themselves out of their soaked uniforms, looking abashed and embarrassed, glancing at him from under their eyelashes. He liked it. As the water warmed, he took the shower head down and hosed the two of them off, ignoring their spluttering and gasping as the mess they’d made of each other sluiced off their faces, hair and skin and down the drain. They stood close together nervously, their bodies tense at being so near to one who each considered a rival, but he could see that there was more to it than that. Could see the conflict in their eyes between feeling like they ought to leap away and snap and snarl, and the hidden yearning to lean in, to seek comfort in the other as Shiro glared sternly down at them. And both of them were hard, painfully erect between their slender, muscular thighs. Oh, their skin was so pretty; Lance all golden caramel and Keith fairer, but sun-kissed from all his time in the desert, his cheeks dusted with pink in embarrassment. Both of them were slim and taut with muscle, their skin shining sleek and wet.    
  


“I’m sick of your bickering,” growled Shiro. “If you can’t learn when to keep your mouths shut and act like grown men instead of bratty little children, I’ll give you something better to do with them.”

 

He reached over and turned off the water. As it cooled on their naked bodies, their skin pebbled and they shivered a little, eyes wide and pinned to him anxiously, but with a hunger neither was able to hide. Unconsciously, they leaned closer to each other. Shiro smiled at them. Oh, they looked so good like that.

 

“Get on your knees,: he ordered softly. They glanced at each other, then without a word of protest, they both sank to the floor immediately. Slowly, Shiro’s hands moved to the buckle of his belt, unfastening his pants, reaching inside to draw his cock free from its confines where its hardness strained for release….

 

His eyes flew open as he gasped, his heart hammering in his chest. His body was drenched with sweat, his cock aching between his thighs. He closed his eyes again, gritting his teeth as he tried to banish the images of the dream.  _ No, this is wrong. _ He clenched his hands into fists by his sides, trying to resist, but it had been so long since he’d even allowed himself this, something so normal. With guilt surging like acid in his stomach, he reached for himself in the quiet, lonely dark of his bedroom. In penance for his terrible thoughts, he used his metal hand. It chafed against the tender skin of his erection, but only took a few rough strokes before he threw his head back and came all over his own stomach. HIs release brought him no peace, the pleasure fleeting. When he finally fell back asleep, he dreamed of fighting. Fighting and hating every moment, hating himself when he felled one opponent after another. Strong enough to be a killer, but not strong enough to resist his own guilty desires.

 

****

 

There were a few days of relative peace after that. Keith and Lance sniped at each other a little, but there were no more actual arguments or fights. They were too busy. The Castle’s sensors discovered a planet under attack by the Galra, and Voltron was called to action to save its peaceful inhabitants. Then there came the meeting of the new race, a short, only vaguely humanoid race of beings covered with fine, soft fur in multiple hues of blue and green and orange who lived in trees and had long tails not unlike Earth primates which helped them leap and swing through the branches. Their Universal translators came in very handy, because their new friends’ vocal cords were not equipped to handle words and they communicated in oddly beautiful chirps and trills that sounded a little like birds and a little like monkeys. Their food wasn’t too weird though, and was a welcome reprieve from the endless sameness of the protein goo they were used to. Negotiations of a peace treaty were going well, and the people, who called themselves Ch’karr or something close to that, hosted a feast for them. 

 

Shiro was sitting between Allura and Hunk, enjoying the fresh fruit, baked roots of some kind that, when mashed tasted a little like potatoes and parsnips mixed together with a subtle, nutty undertone, crunchy indescribable fresh vegetables and a sweet, mildly alcoholic beverage the origin of which he probably didn’t want to know, when Pidge came rushing up to him completely out of breath and red-faced. Abruptly, he realized he hadn’t seen Lance or Keith in over an hour.

 

“Shiro,” she panted when she’d finally caught her breath a little, “come quick! It’s Keith and Lance! They...they’re really fighting. I’m afraid someone’s going to get hurt!”

 

Allura’s lovely face blanched, then darkened with anger and frustration.

 

“Not again,” she groaned. “Things are going so well, too. What are these people going to think? We  _ need _ this treaty. Our allies are too few. Shiro, you must do something, quickly!”

 

Shiro was already on his feet, feeling sick with dread, anger roiling in his gut. How could those two be so  _ stupid _ ? They knew how outnumber all of them were in their tiny alliance of races willing to resist Zarkon and his army, and how ill-equipped most of those races were to offer any real help. How could they be so selfish as to endanger a new alliance? Filled with dread, he jumped up from the table and rushed after Pidge, who turned and fled back in the direction she’d come from, trusting Shiro to be right behind her.

 

The closer they got to whatever catastrophe was happening, the easier it became for Shiro to make his own way and not have to rely on Pidge to show the way. Whatever was going on, it was making rather a lot of noise. They pounded around a curve in one of the many winding suspended wooden walkways that made up the enormous maze encompassing the Ch’karr treetop village and skidded to a halt. 

 

One of the things that had always made Shiro a good student, then a good officer’s candidate, and finally a good officer (as well as, he supposed, the chosen paladin of the black lion) was his ability to quickly assess almost any given situation. It was immediately apparent to him that a group of the younger members of the village had put together an impromptu party of their own. Likely they’d either invited Lance and Keith to join them, or the  two had decided that the dinner party with the elders was too sedate for their taste. As to what ended up setting them off, it could have been anything. Lance bragging about how much better than Keith he is, Keith muttering deliberately audible deprecations, one of them chewing their food wrong. But it didn’t matter. They were rolling around in the center of a group of loudly chittering youngsters, each apparently doing their best to beat the other to a bloody pulp. And, apparently, being cheered on by the offspring of their hosts. Great. From everything Shiro had been able to tell so far, this was a peaceful race and he seriously doubted the elders were going to appreciate the two paladins introducing their younger generation to this kind of violence.

 

Shiro pushed as carefully as possible through the circle of small being watching the fight, then leaned down and hauled Lance and Keith apart by the backs of their uniforms. The echoes of his dream were not lost on him, but he shoved that down and focused on the now. At first the two young men were too infuriated to even notice who was interfering with their brawl. Lance took a blind swing at him and managed to land a glancing blow off his left cheekbone. Keith, the more peceptive of the two, went abruptly still and stared up at Shiro in horror. 

 

“STAND DOWN,” roared Shiro, and Lance’s flailing arms almost comically slowed to a gradual halt, as if in slow motion. His expression mirrored Keith’s almost exactly, along with an exaggerated cringe when he realized who his last punch had actually connected with. They hung limply in his hands, breathing hard, looking rather the worse for wear. Shiro’s excellent hearing took in the approach of pounding and pattering footfalls rapidly nearing their location. He gave both paladins a rough shake, then leaned close to growl under his breath.

 

“Back to the Castle. Now. Don’t be seen.  _ Move _ .”

 

He turned to stride up the pathway, ignoring them, knowing from the guilty expressions of shame on their faces that he’d be obeyed. Moving quickly, leaving Pidge behind to quiet down the crowd of excited native youngsters, relieved beyond measure that he knew he could count on her to do it, he intercepted the approaching group. It consisted of several of the Ch’karr elders, Allura, and Coran. Allura was doing her very best reassuring expert diplomat voice, to every outward appearance sounding completely assured when she promised the concerned new friends that she was absolutely certain there was nothing to be concerned about while Coran followed two steps behind her right shoulder looking calm and official. You had to know them to notice how worried both of them were. Everyone halted when Shiro reached them, mainly because he intentionally made it impossible to pass without knocking him out of the way. Appearing larger than he was had been a useful skill in the arena.

 

“Sir Shiro,” said Allura, sounding both concerned and relieved at the same time, “can you assure our new friends that there’s nothing to be worried about?” The princess, an accomplished diplomat, managed to make it sound like a confident command, but Shiro knew her well enough to recognize that it was an actual question.

 

“Of course, your Highness,: he said as smoothly as possible, erasing the anger and frustration and nerves from his voice. Shiro had learned the hard way not to betray his real emotions, under conditions a lot more life-threatening than this. “An athletic demonstration of the Earth sport known as wrestling, nothing more. Paladins Keith and Lance have retired to the Castle to rest from their exertions. There’s no cause for concern.”

 

Allura’s shoulders relaxed at his words and she turned to the elders, beaming with smiles, launching into a long-winded and boring explanation of “Earth wrestling” that at least sort of resembled the actual sport since she’d been introduced to it as a form of training her paladins engaged in from time to time. It gave Pidge time to calm the kids down before any of their elders could question them, and within a few minutes Allura’s natural charm and grace had everyone chattering and happy again. They returned to the celebration, but Shiro excused himself, citing tiredness from their battles as an excuse. In reality he was way too tense to feel confident in his ability to keep up the facade of cheerful camaraderie Allura would need from him if she stayed. She gave him an understanding look and dismissed him. He trudged back to the Castle with slumped shoulders. Clearly ignoring Keith and Lance’s behavior wasn’t working at all. The rational discussion he’d tried in the beginning hadn’t worked either. He’d been content to ignore them anyway, for his own sanity, until now. But if their rivalry was going to endanger vital alliances, something was going to have to be done. He just wished he knew what it was.

 

****

 

He went to talk to Allura about it the next morning. She’d been trained practically from birth to deal with all manner of situations, and to be a leader. She received him in her private sitting room, a peaceful place filled with plants and artwork from her home planet. He was pretty sure most of them were replications or possibly holograms, but the effect was nice anyway. She was sitting at a pretty white desk beside one of the big windows, typing up what he knew to be a detailed report of their encounter with the Ch’Karr. Allura kept detailed personal records on  _ everything _ they did, especially everything Voltron did, because she felt very strongly about ensuring that their mission and battles for the freedom of the galaxy wasn’t lost for future generations, no matter what the outcome of their fight ended up being. He waited while she finished the sentence she was tapping out on her console, then executed a small bow when she turned to him and smiled tiredly.

 

“Shiro,” she said gently, “I wish you’d stop doing that when it’s just us.”

 

“I know,” he said uncomfortably, “but this is...official business? Kind of, anyway. I could use some advice from someone with training and experience in dealing with...difficult leadership decisions.”

 

“Lance and Keith,” she sighed. He nodded.

 

“Well, first let me commend you on the way you handled things last night. You really saved the day, getting to them and shuttling them out of sight before anyone too important saw them. We have a treaty in hand. Though the Ch’Karr don’t have anything to offer us in the way of combat or defensive resources, they’re more than willing to provide food supplies, building materials and even refuge for those who have lost their homes or planets to Zarkon. This planet is very large, and rich in resources that would be lifesaving for people who might find themselves in those straits and yet  _ not _ the sort of resources that are very useful to the Galra. They don’t have need of trees or fruit, but many of the people displaced by them will need exactly that. The Ch’Karr only inhabit about a fourth of this planet’s surface. There’s potentially room for an entire homeless civilization. It’s very exciting! I couldn’t be more pleased. Keith and Lance’s little….altercation didn’t do any harm after all.”

 

Shiro sighed heavily and took a seat when she indicated it. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration. She smiled sympathetically and handed him a glass of fruit juice they’d acquired from their new friends after pouring it from a tall, fluted pitcher. The fresh food and drink they’d taken on wouldn’t last long, so they’d all might as well enjoy the respite from green protein while it lasted.

 

“I don’t think that’s the point, Princess,” he said finally, after taking a long drink. “They easily  _ could _ have caused a major problem for this alliance, and if things keep on the way they are, it’s going to happen one of these days.”

 

“All right, I do see your point. I hate to admit it, because you’re all working so hard, and they both really do come through when it counts,” she said, sounding a little sad.

 

“So far that’s true, and I’m not doubting their combat abilities. They’re both good, and they’re getting better all the time. Keith being able to bond with red the way he has….it’s….”

 

“Nothing short of remarkable,” supplied Allura. “I don’t think any of you realize how remarkable it truly is. I’ve studied all the records, and you must believe that the fact that Red has not just accepted him, but formed such a bond, is almost a miracle.”

 

“That’s not in question,” Shiro replied. “It’s not their performance as warriors that’s the problem. Well, except when their personal issues crop up in the middle of a fight, which isn’t often, but it  _ has _ happened. They snap out of it when push comes to shove….or at least, they have so far. But their arguing is putting a strain on the rest of the team, and what happened last night….just because we prevented a major incident doesn’t mean we’ll be able to next time.”

 

“You’re right.” Allura sighed. “It needs to end. What do you suggest?”

 

“That’s what I’m here to talk to you about. I’m hoping  _ you _ have a suggestion. I’m….kind of at a loss myself.”

 

“How would your Earth military handle the situation?” she asked. Shiro sighed again.

 

“Several possible ways. Confine them to quarters. Demotion. KP duty or other kinds of extra work. Write them up. Er, that means a note in their personnel files about something like insubordination that’d make it hard for them to get future promotions. Maybe even court martial if none of those other things worked.”

 

“I see,” said Allura.

 

“Yeah. We’ve tried the couple of those things we  _ can _ do, but the other options...well, they just aren’t. There’s not really any sort of promotion a write-up could prevent. I mean, Paladin of Voltron’s pretty much as high as it gets in our little army. And we can’t afford to demote them, there’s no way to form Voltron without them, so the same goes for court martial, because kicking them off the team’s not an option either. Red and Blue are  _ their _ lions. Unless  _ they _ decide to reject the guys, we don’t have any say in it. And I don’t see that happening. Hell, I don’t  _ want _ that to happen. Er, sorry.”

 

Allura smiled and waved away his minor profanity.

 

“You’re right, about all of those things. And I’ve noticed that ignoring them doesn’t seem to be doing much good either.”

 

He buried his face in his cup to hide the slight flush in his cheeks.

 

“There are a lot of...experts on Earth who’ve said that the best way to discourage childish behavior is to refuse to give the behavior any kind of acknowledgement. So when it doesn’t get the attention the behavior’s designed to get, it’ll stop in time,” he muttered awkwardly.

 

“Well, they certainly are  _ acting _ like children,” she agreed with a small smile. “It’s a cry for attention if I ever saw one.”

 

“I know, but I don’t understand it. And I don’t have a clue what to do about it,” Shiro said in frustration.

 

“You  _ are _ aware that they’re doing it for  _ your _ attention, aren’t you?” she said gently. Shiro’s head shot up and he stared at her in surprise, choking a little on his mouthful of fruit juice.

 

“I... _ mine _ ?”

 

“Of  _ course _ , Shiro. You’re their hero. They both look up to you equally. I’m not certain, but I believe it may even be more than that.”

 

“I’m not anybody’s hero,” muttered Shiro bitterly, then started when he registered the rest of her words. “What….ah….what do you mean by ‘more than that?’”

 

“Oh,” said Allura, blushing suddenly and seeming vastly discomfited. “Oh, I’m terribly sorry. Are...er. Are same-sex. Er.  _ Relationships _ . Not a...an occurrence on Earth then?”

 

“ _ What?”  _ Shiro was pretty sure he’d never been more startled to hear anything come out of Allura’s mouth before, and she’d exposed them to plenty of shocking information during their relatively short association. “No! I mean, yes, they  _ are _ a thing. Not. Um. Everyone agrees with it, but same sex marriage is recognized by the government, and they have the same rights as opposite sex couples. It’s the same with gender too. There’s not...supposed to be discrimination about that. There is anyway, especially in the military, where there are still some jobs they say you’ve got to be a male to qualify for. I mean, that’s why Pidge did what she did, you know? But what the fu...er. What the hell does that have to do with Keith and Lance fighting?”

 

Allura covered her mouth with her hand to hide a smile, as if Shiro were being adorably obtuse. His eyes widened.

 

“Wait, are you saying that they’re  _ attracted _ to each other, and they keep fighting like this because they’re both too stubborn to admit it?” he asked incredulously. The princess, still trying not to smile but also still blushing brightly, looked down at her own glass of fruit juice and ran a finger around its rim.

 

“Well,” she sighed, “I’m saying that’s certainly  _ part _ of it.”

 

“I...see,: said Shiro, trying desperately to ignore the surge of bitter jealousy that rose like bile in his throat when he realized that, in retrospect, it was entirely possible that she was right. And that the thought of Lance and Keith. Keith and Lance  _ together _ filled him with a terrible sense of despair and longing that he could not... _ would not _ allow himself to feel. Convincing himself he was shaking it off, he frowned. “But, whether that’s true or not, they can’t keep going on the way they are, and I’m about at my wits’ end. What about the Altean military, Princess? Did….do your people’s traditions offer any suggestions we could utilize in dealing with the. Situation? Before their behavior causes some kind of crisis we can’t avert. Or even affects all of us in battle badly enough to actually endanger someone? I mean, once we joined with the lions, and found you and Coran, we really became Altean soldiers more than anything else. I’m not even sure what waits for us back on Earth, if we ever even get there.”

 

Allura’s eyes narrowed at him a little. She looked more than a bit uncertain, but also as frustrated as Shiro felt. 

 

“While it’s true that my people were a peaceful race, and our military implemented many of the same sorts of disciplinary measures you described, there...was another option.”

 

“What is it?” Shiro leaned forward a little, feeling hopeful for the first time. Maybe there was some kind of cool behavioral modification program in those amazing computers of theirs. Allura’s words dashed his hope like a bucket of ice water.

 

“Corporal punishment,: said Allura uncomfortably.

 

“You mean  _ beat _ them?” Shiro’s voice ramped up an octave in disbelief. Allura blushed and looked away.

 

“It was only ever used as a last resort, but for crimes not serious enough to warrant imprisonment, or when such a thing wasn’t possible due to the importance of the officer’s position. And never taken lightly, I assure you. My people were  _ not _ barbarians!”

 

“No, that’s….I didn’t mean it to sound insulting. We...on Earth a lot of militaries used to do the same thing, but it fell out of practice a long time ago,” he said awkwardly. 

 

“I imagine it would have done the same on Altea, had my planet not fallen in battle so long ago,” Allura said softly, a flicker of the grief Shiro knew she must have dealt with every day showing on her lovely face for a moment.

 

“I’m sorry...Allura,” said Shiro awkwardly. One of his hands let go of the glass he was clutching like some kind of totally inadequate shield, made an abortive move towards her as though to….he didn’t even know. Pat her on the shoulder? Grip her hand comfortingly? But he always felt awkward about touching Allura. She was a  _ princess _ , and in his mind they were leagues apart, even though she was always kept trying to convince them all that’s not true. She gave a small head-shake and smiled, the grief vanishing as quickly as it had come. From her expression anyway. He knew some kinds of pain never left you, no matter how much time passed. The muscles in his shoulder twitched in sympathy. The ones attached to his prosthetic arm.

 

“It’s all right. And I’m not offended. It was….well, you asked. I’ve no idea whether such an option would work or not. We just seem to be running out of choices. Perhaps locking them in an empty room together until they work things out,” she suggested a little weakly, her mouth quirking in a wry smile. Shiro’s smile in return matched hers pretty exactly.

 

“I’m afraid if we did that, we’d find ourselves in the market for  _ two _ new pilots,” he sighed. “It’s just. I don’t want to be that guy anymore, the one for whom violence is the answer to most of his problems. They’re my friends as well as fellow paladins, even if I am sort of their commanding officer.”

 

“There is no ‘sort of’ to it, Shiro,” said Allura gently. “You  _ are _ their commanding officer, but it’s not just because the black lion chose you. They all chose you too. You weren’t forced on them through some military assignment from some uniformed bureaucrat who cared nothing for building a good team. They love you. And there  _ is _ a difference between violence and discipline. I don’t know if it’s the right answer or not, but I do agree with you that something must be done. I don’t think I can tell you how to handle your team. It’s ultimately up to you. But please. Come up with  _ something _ . And soon.”

 

He nodded glumly, finished his juice a little regretfully (he hoped they still had more), and pushed to his feet, feeling about fifty years older than he was.

 

“I’ll try,” he said, and walked away.

 

****

 

“You’re being stupid.”

 

Shiro’s head whipped around toward the sound of the voice, his body tensing suddenly as it always did when something surprised him. He was working on it, but the fight or flight instinct was something he’d learned the hard way, and learned really well, down to a subconscious, nearly cellular level living in the gladiator cells and caves where he’d been held. He relaxed when he saw Pidge sliding down the slanted wall he was leaning against on one of the Castle’s outer ramparts. He liked to come here to think. It was peaceful, way up high like this with the wind in his face and ruffling his hair, being able to see all around, but tucked away between the wall and a stone railing that protected anyone standing here from falling off. He hadn’t realized anyone else knew about the spot. Sighing a little, he hoped it wouldn’t mean he’d have to find a new spot. He liked this one. Pidge’s words registered in his brain.

 

“What are you talking about?” He knew his voice sounded a little irritable, but Keith and Lance had been confined to their quarters for close to 24 hours now and he was no closer to a solution. Or even to a decision on how to handle the single incident with their fight at the feast. Pidge settled next to him and drew her knees up under her chin.

 

“Look, I don’t know any other way to say what I wanna say to you other than to just come out and say it. Try not to dive over that rail to escape on me, okay?”

 

Thinking that sounded drastically ominous, he promised not to, lips twitching with humor.

 

“Okay,” she said, smiling back. “I see the way you look at them. I see the way they look at you. And oh my god, everybody sees the way they look at  _ each other _ when they think nobody notices.”

 

Shiro abruptly wished he hadn’t made that promise, because he’d rather be anywhere but here right now, and Pidge was sitting  _ against _ the door. Over the rail was his only option. Maybe Black could make it in time to prevent him from splatting to his gruesome death almost a hundred feet below. Or maybe death would be better. His mouth dropped open as he stared at her.

 

“I...you...they…,” he said intelligently. Pidge rolled her eyes.

 

“Come  _ on _ Shiro. They’re both so desperate for you to notice them that they’d do anything for it. And they’re scared to admit that they’re into each other too. It’s a huge part of why they fight so much. The problem is that they’re both too stubborn...and too scared...to admit it. I’m pretty sure neither of them has room in their tiny brains for there to ever be an  _ all _ of you, and they can’t decide who they want more.  _ They _ never see you looking at them that way, so another huge part of it is that they’re fighting over  _ you _ , even if they don’t realize it. But  _ they _ never see the way you look at both of them.”

 

“That’s not possible,” whispered Shiro desperately.

 

“Why,” snapped Pidge sharply, her eyes flaring angrily at him. “Are you so stupid and old fashioned that you think there has to be only one person for everybody?”

 

“Wh-what? I...no, that’s not what I...Pidge. I’m their superior officer!”

 

“Pfft,” snorted Pidge, waving this away with distressing lack of concern. “In battle, sure. What does that have to do with feelings? Especially when we’re fighting a war all of us are more than halfway sure there’s no way we can win? I think it’s stupid not to grab hold of what matters with both hands and hang on as tight as you can. And in your case, you’re gonna need both hands.”

 

“You...you’re actually being serious right now,” said Shiro, feeling a little like she’d just whacked him upside his head with a tree trunk. And yet….and yet her words made a certain amount of sense. His traitorous body and heart whispered to him that she was right. They were no longer members of the Garrison. He’s been clinging to Earth military regulations because they were what he  _ knew _ , and, if he were honest, because he didn’t think he was worthy of them. Not after the things he’d done.  _ You didn’t have a choice _ , he thought.  _ And you fought them every chance you got, until you escaped. You never gave up, or let yourself become what they wanted to make you, even if you came close a few times. _

 

“Of course I’m being serious. Both of those guys want you so bad they can’t stand it, and I know you want them right back. So stop hanging on to some stupid sense of duty that means jack anymore. We’re not Earth’s soldiers anymore, even if we’re fighting for it’s freedom too. Hell, Shiro, we deserted when we left Earth, whether we meant to or not. Superior officer my ass. You’re the Black lion. A paladin like the rest of us. You deserve to be happy as much as the rest of us do. Maybe more, after everything you’ve gone through. So just...be happy.”

 

“I can’t let what they did last night slide,” he said slowly, mostly because the rest of his brain was heavily occupied with what she’d just said. Pidge laughed lightly.

 

“That one’s easy,” she said with what couldn’t be described as anything but a decidedly dirty smile.

 

“Yeah? Well I wish someone would explain it to me, because I’m half out of my mind with trying to figure out how to handle it,” he admitted, scrubbing a hand through his hair and making it stand on end. Pidge giggled.

 

“Bust their butts for them real good,” she said lightly, “and then kiss it better.”

 

“You...you’re suggesting that I...you think I should…”

 

“Gee, Shiro, when’d you become such a smooth talker? I’m saying they’re been acting like bratty little kids. So treat them that way. It’s what they want anyway.”

 

“How in the hell,” said Shiro slowly, “do you know that?”

 

“Shiro, my friend,” said Pidge loftily, “I am a hacker. I know what kind of porn  _ everybody _ on this Palace of a ship...or would that be ship of a Palace….looks at.”

 

“Katherine Holmes,” gasped Shiro in shocked horror (mixed with relief because there was no porn on his own console in his bedroom), “I am going to tell your brother on you when we rescue him!”

 

Pidge snorted at this.

 

“Go ahead. I hacked  _ his _ ass years ago. Blackmail material enough to last me for  _ years. _ ”

 

Shiro decided it was probably best to end that particular line of discussion, because there were things he did not want to know.

 

“So...both of them...you’re sure?” he asked. He wished he could say with reluctance, but he was too fascinated. And sort of felt like he’d already passed the point of no return anyway.

 

“Yup. Keith seems to like a little rougher stuff than Lance, but Lance is more into bondage and I’m pretty sure he’s got a kink for praise the size of this monstrous thing we live in. Kind of explains all the bragging, if you think about it, yeah? But the spanking? Oh yeah. I’m very sure.”

 

Shiro hid his face in his hands.

 

“Tell me you’re not spying on people in the privacy of their own rooms,” he begged plaintively.

 

“Okay, I won’t tell you that,” chirped Pidge cheerfully. Shiro groaned. “Kidding, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t do that, Shiro. I didn’t even  _ exactly _ come across the porn thing on purpose either. Allura and Coran asked me to do a sweep of everybody’s consoles after that time we got hit with the computer bug they were afraid came from one of Zarkon’s spies. Like, every console in the palace. So it was really an accident, but once I found stuff, I couldn’t help looking. Please don’t tell anyone. I’ll never tell a soul, except you, because someone obviously had to kick you in the butt to get you to  _ do _ something. And...okay, in the interest of being completely honest with you, because I don’t ever want to lie to you, Hunk knows what I found on his console, because I told him, and the spying thing wasn’t a joke about him because he said I could. Because of some of the stuff I found. But I won’t tell you what it was, because that’s his private business and I swore I wouldn’t. I know Keith and Lance would never be able to look me in the eye again if they knew, and I don’t want that to happen. There’s nothing wrong with what anybody fantasizes about, or what they want, as long as everyone involved is okay with it, and nobody gets hurt. Well,” she added as an afterthought, “as long as nobody gets  _ damaged. _ ”

 

“Pidge?” Shiro spoke after being silent for a very long time.

 

“Yes Shiro?”

 

“Stop talking.”

 

She faked pulling a zipper across her lips and scrambled to her feet. As she opened the door and turned to leave, she paused.

 

“Okay, one more thing though,” she said. Shiro groaned again.

 

“Fix this,” she said firmly. “And just...be happy.  _ All _ of you deserve it.”

 

The door hissed closed behind her softly.

 

****


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro, trusting that the information he's gotten from Pidge is accurate, puts his plan into action. Now he just has to get two incredibly stubborn young men to go along with it. And feels sneak up on all of them. Some react better than others. To everything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh god, I'm really hopeless. I swear, I meant for this to be a two part story. I mean, honestly, how long does it take for someone as hot as Shiro to get two guys who are into him anyway and secretly want what he's suggesting to agree to a little consensual spanking?
> 
> The answer is, a really long-ass time. I have no excuse. I wanted there to be porn! There's a boner, and some kissing, and a lot of innuendo, and then Shiro's feelings got in the way, because I will be damned to hell if he's not the nicest, gentlest Dominant who has ever existed in any form of media. 
> 
> So fine. Here. Have another chapter of buildup. Argh.
> 
> And please, if it's not too much trouble, because this is a totally new fandom for me and I'm a little freaked out over it, plus I really want to do a good job for Kalix because of reasons. So let me know what you think?

Keith read the message on his console and his shoulders sagged a little in relief.  _ Get to the showers and clean up. Report to my quarters at 20:30 hours. _ Shiro still tended to use Earth military time rather than Altean time the way some of the others were learning to. That was okay with Keith. Of course, just about everything Shiro did was okay with Keith. But this? Sitting in his room for damn near 24 hours now...the waiting was making him so twitchy he couldn’t stand it. They’d been allowed to have their minor cuts and scrapes treated, and meals had been shoved wordlessly through his door at the appropriate times (he assumed it was the same for Lance), but other than that he hadn’t seen anything but the inside of this damn room since last night at the party. Not even allowed to shower, and he was sure he had to be pretty ripe by now. He’d taken off his dirty, battered uniform and crammed it down the laundry chute, but had felt too grimy to bother changing into fresh clothing. His skin itched with old, dried sweat, dust, and the sting of scrapes and scratches. He’d been waiting around in a ratty old pair of boxers for the summons to come, from Allura or Shiro, to find out what was going to happen to them for fighting in front of their hosts for so long that the knowledge that it would at least be over soon was a relief. 

 

_ And he’d be able to see Shiro. _ He winced a little as he tugged on a pair of sleep pants, grabbed clean clothes to put on after, and opened the door. He could already well imagine the expression on the other man’s face. Shiro would be patient, understanding, but he’d be disappointed too. Keith hated that look. Hated putting it on Shiro’s face. He didn’t know why he couldn’t just be honest with the man. He and Shiro had known each other for a  long time, and trusted each other. But all that time, Shiro had always treated Keith like a little brother, and it had been growing steadily more and more unbearable. That wasn’t what Keith wanted. Every now and then, he thought he saw Shiro glancing at him in a way that didn’t look the least bit brotherly, but he was never  _ sure _ , and every time he thought he’d worked up the courage to ask Shiro about it, that courage evaporated the moment he laid eyes on the man. 

 

And then fucking  _ Lance _ had come along. Keith wasn’t stupid. He could see the way Lance looked at Shiro too, and recognized all of Lance’s showing off, grandstanding and bragging for what it was. He might as well get a t-shirt printed with the words “Notice me, Senpai,” on it and a damn picture of Shiro’s face. The thought of Shiro noticing Lance like that made Keith feel nauseous. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, oh, there was more. 

 

There was annoyance and frustration at how  _ stupid  _ Lance acted all the time, but then...fuck his life, then there were the massively, humiliatingly inappropriate erections when the two of them practiced hand to hand or even a lot of the time when they were actually fighting and what the fuck was that about? There was imagining himself shutting up Lance’s stupid face with his mouth on Lance’s mouth instead of a shove or an insult. And there were dreams, and those were the most confusing of all because Lance  _ and _ Shiro were in them, almost always at the same time and Keith simply wasn’t capable of admitting to himself that he kind of wanted what was in those dreams to come true. Like  _ that _ was going to happen. No, with his luck, the likeliest scenario was that someday in the not too distant future, he was probably going to have to watch as the two of them grew gradually closer and closer until they were finally together, and happy, while Keith was left alone just like he’d always been. Just the thought of it made anger roil in his stomach, a fire that always burned and burned and never went out. He stomped to the showers and turned the water on as hot as he could stand it.

 

****

 

Lance’s shoulders tensed when he read Shiro’s message on his console. His stomach felt sick and nervous. Damn it, another one of Shiro’s famous lectures was coming, he was sure of it. He shoved back from the console and leapt to his feet, his movement jerky and uneven as he hunted around for clean clothes to put on and gathered up his skincare products and stuff to take with him to the showers. He’d been feeling this compulsion to look his best for a while now, and he knew it was because of Shiro. If he could only get Shiro to really  _ look _ at him, then maybe the man would see what a great catch Lance was. Maybe he’d….  _ Yeah right. _ With someone like Keith around, the likelihood of that ever happening was about a million to one. 

 

Stupid Keith, with his stupid hair and his stupid girly eyes and his spending all that time in the desert searching, researching, and looking for Shiro to bring him home. Lance knew, was able to admit to himself in his darker moments that all the bragging he did, all the showing off and stuff, was just a cover for how poorly he knew he measured up against Keith fucking Kogane. Shiro favored hand to hand fighting. Keith did too. Keith was a better pilot than Lance, almost as good as Shiro himself, even with years less experience, and sometimes when he  _ really _ melded with Red, Keith could outfly anyone in any galaxy. And they had history. They’d known each other before. Before Shiro had vanished. Before Keith left the Garrison. Before the lions, and Voltron. How could anyone measure up against that? But Lance wanted Shiro to look at him anyway, wanted it with a ferocity he couldn’t even understand. It was most of the reason he hadn’t told anyone on the team that he liked guys as well as girls. But…..but if Shiro would just look at him, and want him, Lance wouldn’t care who knew. 

 

And then there was Keith himself, and wasn’t that a kick in the pants? Lance told himself every day how much he couldn’t stand the guy. He had to. If he didn’t, and admittedly he was forgetting to do it with disturbing regularity recently, which meant that when they sparred sometimes he’d find himself getting sort of confused. Well, his  _ body  _  would anyway, and then his stupid brain would send him weird flashes of himself leaning forward and kissing the asshole instead of leaning in to hook a leg behind his knee and send him crashing to the mats so Lance could crow about winning, which, okay, didn’t actually happen very often. At least Lance was a way better shot than Keith. Better than just about anyone, when he flew with Blue. It was an amazing feeling, and he loved it so much he sometimes even forgot how much he didn’t like Keith, especially when they worked together and the different ways they fought fused into something almost magical it was so fucking effective. One time it had been so damn beautiful, Lance had almost hugged Keith when they’d landed and disembarked from their lions. God, he’d never have been able to live it down!

 

But the worst part? The absolute worst part of all of it was the dreams. The fucking dreams with him and Shiro  _ and _ Keith. Together. As in,  _ together _ together, that invaded his subconscious mind and left him hard and aching and unfulfilled when he woke up….unless he woke up with his shorts full of jizz, which had happened more times than he liked to admit because what was he, twelve? He was a grown damn man, he didn’t have wet dreams anymore! Except he totally did sometimes, if the dreams were about Shiro and Keith. Shit. 

 

He sighed heavily and dragged himself off toward the showers. Time to face Shiro’s lecture, and his disappointment, and try to come up with some kind of excuse, because there was no way in hell Lance was going to be able to tell Shiro the truth. Way too unmanly. And way too embarrassing. Besides, he was pretty sure he’d die when Shiro gently turned him down if he found out, because of course Shiro  _ would _ . One of these days he was going to end up with Keith, it was just a matter of time, and Lance would be left with nothing but those damn sexy dreams, still a virgin, and alone. As he approached the communal showers all the guys usually used, he heard water running. Not really feeling up to running into one of his teammates yet, he veered off and hurried away to one of the other showers, located in what he was pretty sure had once been a servants’ wing or something. It wasn’t kept stocked with soap or shampoo and stuff since no one lived in the wing anymore, but since he had his own stuff with him anyway, it wasn’t a problem for him. He wondered as he stripped off his sleep pants and stepped under the steamy spray whether Keith had already had  _ his _ meeting with Shiro, and what had been said. Probably had. It only made sense for Shiro to choose Keith first after all. Lance was always going to come in second to that guy. Sometimes it made him want to cry.

 

****

 

Shiro glanced at the clock on his console as he paced back and forth the length of his quarters. It was almost time. He ran his palms over his pants legs in nervous agitation. Was he really thinking about doing this? Taking Pidge’s advice? His eyes slid over to his desk, where he’d hidden away the object he’d managed to acquire earlier. He’d found the thought of leaving it out in plain sight to be too much for him. He needed them to listen to him, and if it was the first thing they saw when they stepped into the room, he was pretty sure it would send both of them running for their lions and he’d likely never see either one of them again. No matter what, he found he couldn’t tolerate the thought of punishing them physically against their wills. Not all of the scars on his body came from the arena. There was a lot he still didn’t remember, but when he thought about it, his skin crawled with a creeping sort of horror as he could all too easily see himself,  _ feel _ himself hanging limply in heavy shackles from some kind of post while his own blood ran hot and sluggish down his back and the sound of vicious laughter echoed in his head. He was pretty sure he’d rather cut off his other arm then ever make anyone feel that way. 

 

And yet...and yet he sometimes had thoughts. Imagining them to come from the conditioning the Galra had tried to force on him, he usually pushed the thoughts away as quickly as they came. But if the things Pidge had said were true (and he had no reason to doubt her), then other people had those kinds of thoughts too. More importantly, Lance and Keith had those kinds of thoughts. So maybe it wasn’t a sickness. He’d been forcing himself to examine those thoughts as he waited for them. There wasn’t anything in him that liked the thought of them fearing him. Not any part of him that really wanted to harm them either. But when he allowed himself to think about reacting to them when they acted like a couple of spoiled little brats in the way he was proposing, and it was something they actually wanted anyway, his palms itched and his pants started to feel a little too tight. He liked the thought of….well, there wasn’t really any other way to put it, even though part of him could already hear Lance shrilly protesting the utter unmanliness of the idea….of taking care of them afterwards. It was scarily appealing to imagine….there was no other word for it except  _ cuddling _ them...while they clung back and sniffled and….Damn. Because there were thoughts of what might come after that as well, and those thoughts were the farthest thing from pure of any he’d ever had. Or refused to have. He’d forced himself to examine the age thing as well. They were both a few years younger than him, though past the age of consent and majority on Earth. He had no idea what it was for Alteans, and was pretty sure “age of consent” mattered for shit to the Galrans he’d known. Maybe to others, back on their home planet, things were different, but his captors hadn’t cared how young a slave was. 

 

To his surprise though, he found that them being a few years younger than him didn’t bother him as much as he’d expected it to, when he forced himself to be honest. He kind of liked the idea of taking care of them, spoiling them a little if they ever decided to be good and stop sniping at each other. Also of teaching them things, showing them, telling them what to do….Okay, that was probably enough personal introspection or he was going to be greeting them at his door sporting an actual erection and that would probably be a bad idea. 

 

As if his thoughts of them had conjured them, he suddenly heard voices outside his door. They were both on time. Exactly on time, and had apparently arrived at almost the same moment. And they’d begun arguing immediately, of course. He couldn’t make out all their words, because the soundproofing on these rooms was pretty good, but when two people yelled, “What the fuck are  _ you _ doing here?” loudly enough at the same time, it tended to carry. It was probably a good idea to stop them before they came to blows again. Taking a deep breath, he walked to the door and placed his palm over the sensor. The door slid open with a soft hiss. He folded his arms over his chest and stood silently, waiting for them to notice him. 

 

Because they were pressed nearly nose to nose, hissing suspiciously at each other, he had a few seconds to take in the sight of them. God help him, but they were pretty fucking cute when they were pissed. They reminded him, not for the first time, of angry, spitting cats. They’d both taken the time to shower, which pleased him considering what he was planning. Well, proposing. Their hair was still a little damp. Keith’s was long enough now that it had a tendency to curl a little at the ends. Long enough to get a really good handful of and….did Keith like having his hair pulled? Lance’s brown hair was short, but it always looked so soft. He wondered what it would feel like to run his fingers through that silky hair. They both smelled good; clean and fresh from the shower, but different. Each unique. Keith’s scent always reminded him of the woods and smoke and something spicy, while Lance smelled like lavender and fresh growing things and rain. And he realized that, if someone actually held a gun to his head and demanded that he pick a favorite, he wouldn’t be able to do it. They both smelled like home. They both made his hands twitch to touch them, to find out if their skin was as smooth as it looked, to see and taste them and scrape his teeth over untouched flesh and….Hm.

 

He shook himself a little and cleared his throat. They leapt apart as if he’d zapped them both with a cattle prod and turned to face him, eyes wide and mouths open with surprise. Then they both started talking at once, demanding to know what the other one was doing here and each claiming the other one had gotten the time wrong and that Shiro should send him away until it was his turn. Obviously they’d expected him to talk to each of them individually and privately, but of course they had no idea...He turned his back on them, ignoring their protests completely.

 

“At least you’re on time. Come in and shut the door,” he said coolly. That shut them both up. He’d really have liked to have turned back to gauge their reactions, but he didn’t, walking casually to his desk instead, not looking at them again until he turned his chair to face them and sat down. He’d been obeyed, which was nice. Was that a good sign, or just a sign that they were good soldiers? No, this wasn’t a battle situation, and neither one of them had any problem arguing with him outside of battle. Maybe a good sign then? They stood there, both looking angry and uncomfortable and embarrassed, glancing surreptitiously around his room and carefully  _ not _ at each other or at him. Then when there wasn’t anything left in Shiro’s room to look at, they both stared hard at the floor, as far away from each other as they could without it looking like they were  _ trying _ to stand as far away from each other as they could, which put them a couple of feet apart. He drew in his breath and then let it out on a long sigh. 

 

“Guys, I think you know that what happened last night was completely unacceptable,” he said softly. Keith flinched as if Shiro had slapped him, and Lance twitched uncomfortably, one hand coming up to grip the opposite arm so hard it looked almost painful. They both opened their mouths at once, but Shiro held up his hand (the metal one) for silence, and was gratified when their mouths snapped shut. “I don’t want to hear how it started or whose fault it was. You both knew better. The Ch’karr elders hate violence, and we could have lost the alliance with them over a thing like you two fighting in front of them. Their planet is full of resources we need and room for a lot of refugees who have lost everything; not just their homes but their entire planets to Zarkon. The Ch’Karr are willing to share what they have. Would it really be okay with either of you if we’d lost all that?”

 

“No,” whispered Keith, and Lance shook his head. “It won’t happen again,” Keith added.

 

“Yeah,” said Lance. “I get it. No more fighting in front of new aliens. Well, unless they’re  _ enemy  _ aliens, right...except then it’ll be them whose butts we’ll be kicking. Gotchya loud and clear, man. Ten-four.”

 

“Will you shut up,” hissed Keith. Lance glared at him.

 

“Here’s the thing,” said Shiro gently, ignoring the small flare-up. “I think we all know that it probably  _ will _ happen again. This is the point where you’re both expecting me to give you a speech again.”

 

Both their heads came up at the same time, and their identical looks of surprise were almost comical. If the situation hadn’t been so important, Shiro could have laughed. God, in so many ways they had so much in common. If only he could make them see it.

 

“But I’m tired of giving it, and it’s not working anyway. Assigning you chores like scrubbing bathrooms isn’t working. Making you do extra PT until I hope you’re too tired to fight isn’t working. Sending you to your rooms isn’t working. It’s not like we can demote you, or throw you in the brig, because you’re both too important to the team. You’re  _ vital _ to the team. We’d all be lost without you guys, and I don’t just mean your lions. You matter so much to all of us for this to keep happening. You matter too much to  _ me _ .”

 

For once, neither boy had a single word to say to Shiro’s words. They stared at him, mouths hanging open in shock. It was obvious they’d come here expecting the same lecture he always gave him, and his change in tactics had thrown them. Hard.  _ Good. _ He shifted tactics a little more. He’d always been so careful to focus his words on the team, on working together, building that team, being a part of it. Telling them they mattered to him personally was something he’d never allowed himself to say. His jaw felt nearly rusted shut with how hard it was to be honest with them. Doubts tied his tongue for a few seconds.  _ You’re crazy to even consider this. You? After the things you’ve done? Do you really think they’re going to….what? Welcome you with open arms? They’re going to be disgusted, and you’re going to make a complete fool of yourself. _ He was used to the voice. It had been with him for a long time, and it loved telling him how he didn’t belong here with all of these people, how unworthy he was, how defiled. But he was trying not to listen to it anymore, and when he shoved it down and really looked at their faces, he could see that, behind the shock at his admission, there was a soft yearning in both of their eyes. A hunger he recognized because he felt it too. That need to be acknowledged, to be seen, and valued as an individual, not just as part of the team, but for himself. 

 

“It kills me to see you guys fight,” he went on finally, ungluing his tongue from the roof of his mouth and forcing himself to forge ahead with the plan. “I wish you could be honest with yourselves about why it’s happening, and honest with me. I  _ know _ you care about each other…”

 

“ _ What _ ?” exclaimed Keith, a little too shrilly.

 

“Oh my  _ god _ ,” sneered Lance, rolling his eyes.

 

“Cut the bullshit,” snapped Shiro. There was an almost audible clicking of teeth as their mouths shut in surprise. “I’m tired of the excuses. I’m tired of you both being too scared to admit what you really feel. And I’m  _ really _ tired of watching two people who matter to me so much continue to hurt each other when it’s so damned unnecessary. I’ve tried just about everything I can think of to make you stop, but it’s obvious that none of those things are going to work.”

 

They were really uncomfortable now; confused and off-balance. They darted discomfited glances at each other from under their lashes, then at him, then back to each other. It was pretty much exactly how he wanted them, because if they were standing on solid and familiar ground built of anger and resentment, this was probably never going to work. He stood up, moving slowly so he wouldn’t spook either of them, and walked over to where they stood. They couldn’t have placed themselves more perfectly for his needs if they’d tried. When he stopped in front of them, they were each within easy arm’s reach.

 

“I think it’s time to try something new,” he said softly. He’d gone over about a hundred different possible scenarios in his mind. Discipline first, then tell them how he felt? Tell them how _they_ felt, then spring the plan on them when they were too shocked to mount much of a defense? But when it came down to it, he realized that there was only one way _he_ could do this. _I...I_ ** _love_** _them. I love them both. And that has to come first. It will_ ** _always_** _have to come first._ There were probably a million different ways people did things like this, but Shiro realized that, whatever happened, and (if things worked out and they ended up giving this thing a go, and if Pidge was right and they wanted the same kinds of things he wanted, if they didn’t shut him down and he didn’t ruin everything right here and now, the only way it was going to work for _Shiro_ was for them to know from the beginning of _everything_ , no matter how intense things might get later, his care for them was unequivocally the most vital thing. 

 

He reached out in a flash with both hands, before they could react and lurch back out of reach. His metal hand curled around Keith’s neck and fisted gently in his hair as his real hand closed firmly around Lance’s wrist, holding him in place. Keith let out a tiny, choked whine in his throat as Shiro tugged the younger paladin towards him. Keith stumbled, almost falling against Shiro as the hand in his hair tilted his head back. Shiro bent and gently covered Keith’s startled mouth with his own. It was a soft kiss, not at all aggressive, but it was all Shiro could do to bite back the hungry groan that strained at his chest. He couldn’t even remember the last time he’d allowed himself the luxury of simple human intimacy of any kind, and his starving body craved more as Keith trembled against him, tense and confused. But the boy’s hands came up to curl in the fabric of his shirt, clinging so tightly Shiro was a little worried it would rip. A soft, muffled moan vibrated against his lips. 

 

He could feel Lance yanking against his hold on the other paladin’s wrist, desperate to escape, so he reluctantly broke the kiss and carefully set Keith back on his feet. Keith swayed gently and stared up at him with an expression of such fierce hunger and longing that it made Shiro’s heart ache in his chest. He turned to Lance. The Blue paladin’s face was flushed dark red. Misery was evident in every line of his body. Humiliation and despair marred his features. He turned his face away, refusing to look at Shiro.

 

“Let me go,” he cried, yanking fruitlessly. Shiro was a  _ lot _ stronger. “I get it, okay?”

 

“No,” said Shiro definitely, “you  _ really _ don’t.” He yanked back hard, and Lance fell against him with a sharp, pained cry. It wasn’t physical pain, because Shiro was being very careful not to hurt him. Lance opened his mouth to protest again, and Shiro shut him up with the same gentle kiss he’d just given Keith. Lance struggled against it for a few seconds, but Shiro held on stubbornly and just kissed him. Abruptly, all the fight drained out of the boy and he went utterly pliant in Shiro’s grasp, kissing him back desperately, whimpering softly in his throat.  _ You’re so fucked, _ thought Shiro, because damn if he didn’t  _ really _ like the sound. Shiro had an excellent sense of timing. He’d had to, to survive the arena. He kissed Lance for exactly the same amount of time as he’d kissed Keith, then gently but firmly pulled back, steadying the other paladin on his feet. Lance panted and blushed (which was quite a feat through his dark skin) and softly rubbed at his lips with the tips of his fingers. They both stared at him, earnest and longing and confused all at the same time. They also studiously avoided looking at each other. 

 

“So,” said Shiro, clearing his throat and carefully  _ not _ adjusting himself in his pants even though he really wanted to because his dick was pressed pretty awkwardly against the front of his pants in a genuinely uncomfortable position. “That being said...and we’re going to talk about it some more in a little bit...Um. Back to the fighting thing. Working out the reason for it is a different issue, and I think I have a couple of ideas about  _ that _ too, but what I want to address right now is what you did last night. A little bit of arguing is one thing. But guys, things could so easily have gone a lot worse last night. Allura and I managed to straighten everything out, and we have a treaty with the Ch’Karr. Allura’s pretty excited about it, not to mention we’re actually going to be eating fresh food for the next few days….but that’s not the point. If talks had fallen apart, it would have been because of your fight. And we all know it’s going to happen again if things keep on the way they have been. What if the elders had seen you? What if next time, they  _ do _ ? Or if it happens when we’re fighting the Galra and you’re not paying attention and someone gets hurt? Really hurt. Like Hunk? Or Pidge?”

 

Both paladins hung their heads in shame as the reality of his words sank in. They both opened their mouths, but he raised a hand again to stop them.

 

“I know you’re sorry. I know you didn’t mean to endanger the alliance. I know you  _ never _ mean for anything bad to happen. But it’s on me to try to do something to keep it from happening, and I… Well. I haven’t been doing a very good job of that. It’s my fault, because I’ve been doing my best to try to ignore the way I feel. About  _ both _ of you. I’ve kept telling myself that as your commanding officer, it wouldn’t be right for me to...to take advantage of you. But that...well, it was a cop-out, and not fair to you besides. You’re both good fighters, and you’re smart. Smart enough to know what you want, and to make your own choices, and for me to treat you as less wasn’t fair. I’m sorry for it, and...and I’m going to try to stop.”

 

“Wait. Wait, wait, wait just a damn second,” said Lance, clenching his fists and finally looking over at Keith out of the corners of his eyes. “What is this? You...are you saying that you’re….that you want…”

 

“I’m saying,” said Shiro patiently, “that I’ve been trying to avoid the fact that I’m...attracted...to both of you, so I’ve been avoiding dealing with  _ all  _ of it.”

 

“So….so what the fuck is this? You’re gonna set up some kinda competition or something between us as our punishment for fighting and then….what? The winner gets to be with you?”

 

Shiro ran his fingers through his hair and looked at the ceiling for patience.

 

“That’s not what I’m saying at all,” he said quietly. “I don’t  _ want _ to choose between you. And we  _ are _ going to talk about that in a little while, but I’m not going to let you change the subject right now.”

 

“But…” Lance blurted, then pressed his lips together when Shiro looked at him sternly.

 

“I don’t mind.” Keith’s voice was so quiet it barely registered. Just a breath of a whisper. Lance’s head whipped around to stare at him, openmouthed.

 

“ _ What _ ?”

 

“Whatever Shiro wants. I...it’s okay. I’d settle for anything. I’ve wanted...for so long. I’m just. I don’t mind,” he said fiercely, clenching his fists and staring hard at the floor. Occasionally, Shiro forgot that Keith was an orphan. He’d begun to loosen up a lot more recently, able to laugh and joke with his teammates, forming actual bonds with other people besides Shiro that it made it possible for him to occasionally not remember how achingly lonely Keith’s life had been. It hit him full force again, and he shook his head a little angrily.

 

“ _ Nobody _ is going to be  _ settling _ ,” he said firmly. “And  _ both _ of you are going to stop changing the subject and listen to the rest of what I have to say. Because we have last night and your harebrained fight to deal with  _ before _ anything else.” Maybe it had been dumb to kiss them, but he couldn’t bring himself to be too sorry about it. He’d wanted….no,  _ needed _ them to know at least something about his feelings before  _ this _ part of the conversation.  “All I’m trying to get across to you right now is that I’m sorry I’ve let it go this far. That part of it isn’t on you guys. It’s on me, because I didn’t know what to do about these thoughts and feelings I’ve been having. That’s a cop-out, and it wasn’t fair to any of us. You’ve been trying to get my attention. Well, you’ve got it now, and I’m putting a stop to this. I’m not going to let you two keep hurting each other because you’re confused, and jealous, and have….thoughts and needs you don’t know what to do with. It’s going to kill me if you keep hurting each other, especially when I know that at least part of it is because of me.”

 

He had their full attention now. He could see them both opening their mouths to deny it, but the guilt in their eyes gave them away. He shook his head.

 

“No,” he said firmly. “If I’m being as honest with you as I can be right now, then do me the courtesy of  _ not _ standing there and lying to me. I want us to fix this, not mess it up even more.”

 

“How,” asked Keith, tension in every line of his body.

 

“Yeah, how,” echoed Lance. “You got some kinda new alien magic that’s gonna make us wanting to strangle each other just….go away? Or are you just gonna tie us up in our rooms any time we’re not in battle maybe? Actually, that might be a really good look for Keith! I….” Lance snapped his mouth shut abruptly, as if he’d just realized what he was saying. He didn’t know Shiro knew the things Pidge had told him, but Shiro understood desires you found embarrassing or shameful, so he could imagine that Lance was terrified by his own words, and what Shiro and Keith might realize they revealed about him.

 

“I might just do that now and then,” he said calmly. “But I don’t think I’d enjoy tying you both up alone in your own rooms, and definitely not to just leave you there.” Okay, so it might have been a little bit of a low blow, since he was armed with information they didn’t know he had, but it certainly shut Lance the hell up faster than anything or anyone he’d ever seen before. It would have been almost comical if Shiro hadn’t caught the moment of unguarded need in Lance’s eyes before he made a choked sound of horror and ducked his head again. Keith’s breath caught in his throat. His pupils dilated rapidly as he stared back and forth between the two of them in fascination. “But as for the current situation, I don’t think that will do. I’ve got something different in mind.”

 

He turned his back on them and walked back to his desk. Pulling open the top drawer, he reached in and closed his fingers around the object he’d stashed there earlier. Pulling it out, he turned back to face them with a large wooden spoon in his hand, with a wide but shallow bowl nearly as big as the palm of his hand. They both eyed it warily, as if it were a venomous snake, then looked up at him in confusion.

 

“You...want us to take a cooking class together?” Lance asked a little desperately.

 

“Lance, stop,” whispered Keith.

 

“The two of you have been behaving like children towards each other for quite some time now,” said Shiro slowly, ignoring the flippant remark. “And little boys who can’t behave themselves…” He took a deep breath. “...Are punished.”

 

It was fascinating to watch the myriad emotions and thoughts that played across their faces and flitted through their eyes in a matter of a few seconds. To his relief, blatant desire was first for both of them. Pidge hadn’t been wrong after all. But after that...panic, embarrassment, confusion, hunger, fear, anger, denial. At least the fear part didn’t seem to be related to him. It showed when they darted tiny glances at each other out of the corners of their eyes. 

 

“Shiro…” breathed Keith, then bit his lip and couldn’t think of anything else to say.

 

“You can’t,” squeaked Lance, clearly close to choosing panic as the main emotion to go with. Shiro stepped up to him and put a hand on Lance’s shoulder, squeezing gently.

 

“I won’t force you,” he said softly. “If you really can’t do this, we’ll try to find another way.” He glanced over at Keith and was surprised by the expression on the Red paladin’s face. Keith hadn’t chosen panic at all. Keith looked  _ hungry _ , but he was also regarding Lance with something very like sympathy in his eyes. As if he knew Lance well enough to know how scared Lance must be to be standing there on the precipice of having his secrets laid bare, of having them laugh at him for them. 

 

“I’ll do it,” he said softly. Shiro bit back a smile of triumph, because if Keith went along with Shiro’s suggestion, there was no way in hell that Lance would let himself back out either. He’d lose face, lose it to  _ Keith _ , and Shiro didn’t think Lance could bear for that to happen. 

 

“What?” cried Lance, shocked by the words coming out of Keith’s mouth. 

 

“You heard me,” muttered Keith, pale pink dusting his cheeks.

 

“Dude,” Lance said shrilly, his blue eyes wide and shiny with anxiety, “I knew it. I knew you were fuckin’ crazytown, but this proves it. You...you’re actually gonna stand there and tell me it’s  _ okay _ with you that...that Shiro... _ Shiro _ wants to...wants...he...wants...to….”

 

“Spank you,” offered Shiro helpfully, because it didn’t sound like Lance was going to be able to get the word out any time in the next century. “Both.”

 

“I...yeah,” said Keith, then swallowed hard. “If he thinks that’s what’s fair.”

 

“I hate you so much right now, dude,” muttered Lance, clenching his fists so hard his knuckles turned white. His chest heaved. He bit his lip. He shuffled his feets back and forth a few times. He pulled at his shirt. Then he finally looked up. His chin stuck up defiantly, he glared straight at Keith. “Chill,” he said coldly. “I’m in.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro "punishes" Keith and Lance for their fighting. 
> 
> It's not really much of a punishment, nor is it truly meant to be. How can it be, when it's what all three of them want. If everybody could just admit it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so we still don't quite make it to the actual porn part of things. And yet, this chapter could very easily be a good stopping point. Leave things to your imagination, as it were. 
> 
> If enough people want the smexy times, please let me know, and I'll write it. This has just gotten a lot longer than I intended for it to be. Even though Kalix is totally worth it!!

“So how are we doing this, then? Want us to take turns laying over your lap and call you Daddy? I bet Keith cries. He looks like a crier.” It’s a terminal case of diarrhea of the mouth. Lance knew this, but he couldn’t stop. He’d never been able to stop, especially not when he was  _ this _ far outside his comfort zone. Shiro must have been trying to kill him. It was the only explanation. And he was psychic, and apparently those Galran assholes  _ had _ actually managed to recondition his brain, turning him into the world’s most gigantic asshole underneath his veneer of decency because there was  _ no way _ a decent guy would be doing this to Lance. He just knew both of them were going to be able to tell. They would see his knees trembling and his hands shaking and know it wasn’t fear. Well, ok, some of it was fear, but  _ of them knowing. _ Because what kind of freak  _ wanted  _  something like this? Wanted to be manhandled and made to...to do things. And be good. Be a good boy. For Shiro  _ oh god. _ Obviously it wasn’t that big of a deal to Keith, the way he’d agreed so fast. Probably Keith’s fantasies were normal and  _ sane _ and when he saw what this was probably going to do to Lance, he’d laugh. He’d laugh, and never let Lance live it down. But maybe he’d hate it. People said there was a big difference between fantasy and reality, right? And Lance wasn’t really all that good with pain. Was a little bit of a whiny baby about it, truthfully, even though he did his best to hide it. So yeah, maybe he’d hate it, and then he’d  _ stop _ thinking about Shiro doing insane things to him like shoving him against walls and trying him up and saying things to him  _ exactly _ the fuck like he’d just said a minute ago.  _ Little boys who can’t behave themselves are punished. _

 

Except he didn’t think he was going to hate it. He might be kind of a whiner about  _ some _ kinds of pain, but there were other kinds that just flat fucking  _ did _ it for him, as long as they weren’t  _  too  _  extreme. Like when his really pretty babysitter, the one who’d lived two doors down from him growing up and about whom he’d had his first wet dream, had spanked him when he’d been 11 years old and she’d been 19 and he’d stolen her comm unit to read her dirty texts with her boyfriend one night and she’d been so mad. She’d threatened to do it, probably because she’d heard his mom threatening the same thing at the top of her lungs when Lance was doing something outside in their yard that he wasn’t supposed to be doing and ignoring his mother’s orders to stop it right this minute. Amanda hadn’t known, of course, that his mom never came through on those threats, and Lance hadn’t told her. It had done something funny to his stomach when  _ she _ had run out of other things to threaten him with and laid that one on him, in a way his mother’s threats never had. Even at 11, Lance hadn’t known when to stop. So he’d kept running from her and tossing the unit up in the air out of her reach and reading the messages out loud because he’d wanted to find out what would happen. 

 

She’d left his underwear on and everything, but that had been his first official, honest to god chub, and he’d dreamed about it that same night (and for a lot of nights after that) and woken up with his pajamas full of sticky wetness. It actually had hurt more than a little bit, at the time anyway, but that hadn’t stopped him. Nope, not even a little. His breath caught in his throat.  _ Oh god, _ he thought in horror, _ what if I get hard _ ? This was it. His life was officially over. He was going to die.

 

****

 

Keith didn’t respond to Lance. He couldn’t. He couldn’t take his eyes off of Shiro or the wooden spoon in his hands. There was no way Shiro could know some of the things Keith thought about, or kept a few pictures and stories about on his console in his room. It was just Shiro being at his wits’ end over the fighting and stuff, but Keith didn’t care. He wasn’t even sure he cared that Lance was probably going to laugh at him about it. About how easily he’d said yes. Lance would poke fun at him and accuse him of  _ wanting _ this. But he did. Oh, he did, and it was probably going to be his only chance to come close to Shiro doing anything to him like the stuff he sometimes dreamed and thought about. It probably made him a freak, but he didn’t care. He’d been a freak most of his life. Even if something came out of that kiss… _ god, that kiss _ ...Keith couldn’t see Shiro going for any of the stuff Keith was pretty sure he’d give anything in the world for someone like Shiro to do to him. Shiro was too compassionate, too kind and gentle. Like the kiss had been. He wouldn’t do stuff like use his teeth or pull Keith’s hair or force his head down to...to...well, he probably shouldn’t keep thinking about  _ that _ because it was already going to be hard enough to hide how bad he wanted stuff like this without his dick getting hard before Shiro even started.

 

It wouldn’t be enough. Not nearly enough. Keith wanted teeth at his throat and hands in his hair until his eyes watered and to be taken so hard it brought tears to his eyes and he’d feel it for days. He wanted marks on his skin. He wanted the burn and heat branding itself into his soul. He wanted to be owned. To belong. To be made to do whatever his lover wanted whether he liked it or not. He wanted that with  _ Shiro. _ He just knew that the kind of spanking Shiro was likely to deliver was probably going to be light years short of what Keith would really like for him to do, but he’d take it. Just to have a taste. And then, if there was more where that kiss had come from, he’d be able to imagine these moments again and again when Shiro was being gentle and sweet the way he was sure Shiro would be, because Shiro avoided violence whenever he could. Keith would never demand otherwise of him, not knowing what Shiro had gone through, even a little of it. So it didn’t even matter that Lance would be here to see how bad he wanted it, because he was going to grab the chance with both hands, without hesitation. It would be worth it. 

 

****

 

“Stop talking, Lance,” said Shiro. His voice was quiet, but firm. Miraculously, Lance stopped talking. Shiro stepped over to the wall beside the bed. Their bunks were platforms that attached to the wall, and they were adjustable in two different directions. Allura had explained to him once that this was because, in her father’s day when the castle ship had been built, there were visitors on a fairly regular basis, from all over different galaxies, and, as they’d already seen for themselves, alien races sometimes came in a bewildering array of sizes. The beds could be raised and lowered, and could also be made longer, shorter, and wider than their approximate Earth twin sized standard. Eyeing Lance and Keith, Shiro pushed the button that raised the bed’s platform until it was a little higher than his desk. Hopefully, at some point really soon, nobody in this room would be too worried about modesty anymore, but it was patently obvious that Lance was about to jump out of his skin. This would allow him to preserve at least a little of his dignity. He’d have to bend over a little farther and Keith might have to stretch a little, but it was as close to a nice median height as he could eyeball it. 

 

“Come here and stand at the foot of the bed,” he ordered softly. Lance flinched, but when Keith walked over, silently obeying even though the blush hadn’t left his cheeks, Lance had no choice but to follow. “Drop your pants and lean over the end of the bed.”

 

“C’mon, dude, don’t you think that’s a little excessive?” said Lance, his voice high and breathy with nerves. Keith’s hands froze in the process of immediately obeying Shiro’s orders, obviously uncomfortable with the idea of dropping trou if Lance was going to stand there and argue about it for a while. “I mean, show some respect for a man’s dignity, yeah? Couldn’t we….at least keep our pants on?”

 

Shiro’s mouth twitched at the corner. Even though he’d been trying to show Lance the respect of not obviously eyeing him up, it was obvious the younger pilot was more than half aroused. But then, he wasn’t the only one. 

 

“First of all, you’d barely feel it if I spanked you over your pants, which would kind of defeat the purpose,” said Shiro gently. “And secondly, your pants haven’t done anything wrong that I’m aware of. Hardly seems fair to punish  _ them. _ Lance….it’s gonna be okay. Trust me.”

 

****

 

Lance didn’t look at Keith. He couldn’t. He was pretty sure that dying thing would be virtually instantaneous if he did, but he muttered under his breath, “This is  _ your _ fault,” as he shoved his pants down over his ass and practically  _ dove _ over the edge of the bed, hoping and praying that nobody’d noticed the half-chub starting to swell between his thighs. Folding his arms, he buried his face in them, ears burning, and tried not to start just crying like a total wuss from utter humiliation. He could hear the soft shuffle of fabric as Keith followed suit, then felt the bed sag beside him as the other boy bent down beside him. And of course, Shiro might’ve  _ raised _ the bed but he hadn’t bothered to  _ widen _ it at all, so Lance could feel the heat of Keith’s body alongside his own. It was...damned distracting, is what it was, and he couldn’t for the life of him decide whether it made things worse or better. 

 

****

 

Keith let out a shaky breath as he settled beside Lance on the bed. He felt nervous and jittery, but not because he was afraid. His skin felt too tight and he ached inside. It felt weird having Lance here too, and a lot of him wanted to resent the guy’s presence, but it was hard to do when Lance was freaking out so bad. It was pretty obvious he didn’t want this. Of course Lance was a normal guy and not a freak like Keith. He’d never have thought about something like this as arousing, only humiliating and awkward and awful, being treated like a bad little boy. Waiting to be punished like one. He felt kind of sorry for him, even if Lance kept trying to act like an asshole. Everybody on the team knew by now that the more obnoxious Lance acted, the more uncomfortable he was, whatever the reason. A light tried to click on in Keith’s head at the thought, but he was too busy thinking about  _ Shiro. _ Shiro, standing behind him, looking at him half-naked and more than half turned-on.  _ Maybe he’ll think it’s just because of the kiss, and….and those other things he said. _ Because that  _ was _ a big part of it. Most of Keith is too happy to be as embarrassed as he probably should be. Shiro had said that he had feelings, that he found him attractive, and okay, he’d said the same things about Lance too, which was kind of weird, but Keith found that he didn’t mind it as much as he would’ve thought he would if someone had, say, just asked him in a “what-if” sort of proposed scenario. In fact, he was feeling a lot less weird about the times he’d gotten turned on while sparring with Lance, or while they’ve fought. Or occasionally in the showers. Or when he dreamed about the three of them doing stuff together, even if it was stuff they’d probably never do in real life since in his dreams, Keith always came away from it covered in bite marks and scratches and hickeys and sometimes a lot more than that. But...well, Shiro had probably been kidding with that comment about tying them up. Probably. Right? 

 

A soft gasp escaped his lips when Shiro placed the warm palm of his hand against the small of Keith’s back while he wasn’t paying attention. He felt Lace flinch violently beside him and assumed he was feeling the same thing. 

 

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” Shiro’s low voice rumbled quietly. His callused hand was gentle, but sometimes the metal one was a little cold, which probably explained the flinch. “At least, I really hope so. But you have to stop fighting. If I have to, I’ll just keep doing this until it gets through your thick skulls.” He didn’t sound angry though. Not even disappointed and frustrated like he usually sounded. His voice was a little lower than usual, almost husky. It made Keith shiver. The threat, however, didn’t do a lot to make him feel encouraged to stop fighting with Lance. Because to have this again? He bit his lip against the soft moan that really wanted to come out. Shiro noticed the shiver. His thumb stroked back and forth across Keith’s skin. “Ready?”

 

“Yes,” breathed Keith.

 

“Oh my god,” groaned Lance, voice muffled into his arms, “just get it over with already!”

 

****

 

Shiro chuckled. He halfway wished he could clue them in that he knew. Tell them not to be embarrassed by wanting what they wanted, that it was okay. More than okay. That he wanted those things too, if it didn’t scare them too much. But he knew they weren’t ready to hear it yet. Well, Keith might be. He was reacting a lot better to this than Shiro had expected. There’d even been something speculative and sympathetic in his eyes as he’d leaned over the edge of the bed next to Lance, and not a lot of hesitation. Pidge had said that, if his console’s contents were any indication, Keith liked things pretty rough. Maybe it was even possible that he’d be able to accept Shiro’s darker side….not the side of him that took over completely sometimes when he was really enraged, and  _ liked _ it, but the more  _ intimate _ aspects of the shadows in him. Not just accept it, but possibly even...like it? He shook his head a little and turned his attention back to the two younger paladins bent over the end of his bed. 

 

It was more than a little distracting. He’d be lying if he tried to say that he wasn’t looking forward to what he was going to do to them. He was, and was able to admit it to himself now. But he really wanted to just...touch them, too. Run the palms of his hands over those  _ very _ fine bare asses in front of him, touch that taut, smooth skin, sink his fingers in a little and feel how firm they were. He wanted to kiss them there, sink his teeth in just a little...not too much, not more than they liked. Wanted to spread them open and look and touch and taste. And take. It was probably a good thing they couldn’t see him then, because he could no longer deny the hardness in his tight boxer briefs that was beginning to ache. Since the opportunity presented itself due to their heads facing away from him, he palmed his cock roughly through his pants, shifting it a little into a less cramped position, and let out a silent sigh of relief. Then he gripped the handle of the big wooden spoon a little tighter. He thought he’d chosen the right….hm...tool for the job. Despite the fact that  _ they _ thought so, the night wasn’t really about punishing them. Something like a good, sturdy leather strap or a riding crop or a real paddle (if such a thing existed around here), or even his own hands would hurt a lot worse. But that wasn’t what he wanted. The wooden spoon was sturdy, but it was light. Too light to do more than sting pretty good. Not heavy enough to bruise.

 

No, tonight was about tearing down walls, showing them that all three of them had more in common than they thought. Demonstrating to them physically that he’d like to share their fantasies with them, if they’d let him, and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with those fantasies. It was obvious Lance thought so. He couldn’t tell what Keith thought, but he did seem pretty damn willing to go along with this. Shiro had no desire to break them, but he found that he wanted  _ very _ badly to break  _ through _ to them. And a lot of times, men of action like they all were learned things better by being shown than by being talked to. He took a deep breath and shoved his dirtier thoughts away, ignoring his erection completely as he lifted the spoon and tapped it softly against the tantalizing curve of Keith’s ass. In response, Keith tensed a little and sucked in his breath, then waited, almost  _ vibrating _ with whatever thoughts and emotions were going through his head. 

 

Shiro drew the makeshift paddle back and brought it down with a snap of his wrist on the Red paladin’s bared bottom, then shifted quickly and did the same thing to Lance. The clap of wood on flesh seemed loud in the quiet of his bedroom. Neither were very hard blows. They’d both been hit much harder in battle, and in training. Just not in the same way, which was what made it more shocking. Lance stiffened all over and made a muffled “Hah,” sound into the bedcovers. Keith remained silent. Shiro did it again, taking care not to strike either of them in the exact same spot twice in a row. Slowly, and very carefully, he began to spank them, one after the other, dividing his attention equally, and being very careful not to push them too hard. It was all too easy to get caught up in it. It was so seductive, having both of them in front of him like this. All his endless lonely nights flashed before his eyes and he could hardly believe he was doing this. And that they were letting him. Trusting him. And he knew they’d never be trusting him with this if they didn’t trust him implicitly in a lot of other ways. It was time to try to let go of the past. Everything in this room was worth taking that chance. It wouldn’t always be easy. He still had nightmares pretty often, and he didn’t want them to scare Keith and Lance. But maybe nightmares lost some of their power when you stopped hiding from them in the daytime, and when there was someone to share them with even in the dark. God, they were pretty like this. Bent over his bed, submitting to this, to  _ him. _ It didn’t make him feel disgusting, or evil. Lance and Keith were too good, too courageous and honorable, to have kissed him back the way they had, and then to allow him to do this to them, if they really thought he was a monster. He’d do his damndest to prove that he wasn’t. To keep them safe, and take care of them, if they’d let him.

 

The wooden spoon’s repeated, careful impacts on their skin was slowly turning their flesh to pink. Lance was the same mouthwatering sweet caramel color all over, not because he sunbathed in the nude or anything, but just because it was the color of his skin. It made it a little harder to see the blush imparted by the spanking, but Shiro didn’t care. He wanted to lick Lance all over and see if he tasted as sweet as he looked. Keith’s skin was lighter, and his ass showed off the gradually darkening flush of heat more markedly. If Shiro touched him, would he be able to feel it? He wondered if they were both virgins. He was about as positive as it was possible to be without direct confirmation from the source that Lance was. Nobody who had real experience bragged as loudly about it as he did. The thought didn’t upset him. He found, when he thought about it, that he  _ liked _ the idea of being their first. He wasn’t sure about Keith, and it surprised him to feel a surge of hot anger at the thought that someone else might have dared to touch what belonged to him. A low growl rumbled in his chest. He’d make damn sure no one else laid a hand on either of them, for as long as he had anything to say about it. If they let him, of course.

 

Lost in his thoughts, he’d nevertheless kept up the careful, measured strokes the whole time, until he was startled out of his reverie by a sound. Keith  _ moaned. _ It was a filthy sound, low and throbbing with want. Next to him, Lance’s breath hitched and he squirmed. It...it almost looked like he was  _ grinding _ his hips against the edge of the bed.

 

“Hey,” said Shiro softly, pausing as he spoke. “You guys okay?”

 

“ _ Shiro _ ,” gasped Keith.

 

“What’s wrong? Is it too much?” Neither of them had been making much noise at all, aside from the occasional gasp or tiny whimper. Could he have misread their signals so badly?

 

“No,” panted Keith, squirming a little, then twisting so he could look back at Shiro over his shoulder. His violet-blue eyes were blown nearly black, and his bottom lip was red and swollen from being bitten. “ _ Harder _ .”

 

Lance’s head jerked upright from its hiding place in his folded arms and he stared at Keith incredulously. His mouth opened and worked soundlessly for a few seconds. Then he dropped his head back onto his arms and groaned into them.

 

“ _ Fuck.” _

 

Their words hit Shiro like a punch to the gut, hot and twisting tight inside him. His cock twitched in his pants.

 

“Lance?” he asked softly. 

 

“It...ah...does...kinda feel like. You’re playing patty-cakes. Back there, my dude,” he said, trying to brazen it out as he always did, but his voice sounded almost wrecked, and not in a bad way. Not at all. 

 

“Harder, is it?” husked Shiro teasingly, a wide grin splitting his face. “I take it you don’t feel sufficiently punished yet?”

 

“Shiro,  _ please _ ,” whined Keith softly. Lance only nodded. 

 

“Alright then,” purred Shiro softly. “Let’s see if I can fix that.” Lance whimpered softly. Keith lifted up a little bit on his toes, pushing towards the smooth wood that rubbed a tiny circle on his warmed skin. Offering himself up to Shiro. He wanted to take everything Keith had to give, and never make him regret it. He pulled his arm back a little farther than before, and the next spanks bit deeper, stung sharper. Keith only moaned louder. His back arched and his toes dug into the carpet as his legs shook a little bit when he lifted his hips higher, silently begging. Lance let out a small cry of surprise at the increase in intensity, but he stayed in place. Well, after a second or two of really hot squirming. So hot it made Shiro wonder if they could actually feel the way his eyes burned against their skin. 

 

Both of their pants and boxers had fallen around their ankles, so when the back of the spoon cracked down and they moved their hips or writhed a little or shifted their legs, Shiro could see enough to be able to tell that both of them were fully aroused.  _ Bless you forever, Pidge, _ he thought.  _ Next friendly advanced planet we visit, I’m buying you all the tech you want. _

 

****

 

Lance was lost. Hearing Keith ask Shiro for more had probably been the most shocking thing he’d heard in a year chock full to bursting of one shocking thing after another. Sentient robot lions. Shirogane Takashi back from the dead. Giant flying space castles. Evil purple-furred giant cat aliens. Sleeping princesses. Gigantic transforming robots. Sex dreams about Keith Kogane (the sex dreams about Shiro hadn’t really been shocking...look at the guy. A sentient being would have to be dead not to find him attractive). But cool, prickly, arrogant  _ Keith _ begging Shiro to spank him harder? Yep, that was the capper. The ultimate in weirdness. Finding out that Keith shared some of the same kinds of freaky-kinky fantasies as him? Surreal. But it unravelled the tangled knots of anxiety in his stomach so fast it made him dizzy. There just...there was no way Keith would laugh at him now. Not after saying that. Lance stopped struggling against the growing need clamoring in his brain and just...let go. What Shiro was doing...it was starting to hurt now, but it felt so much more right than the frustrating little tiny nips at his ass from before. His fingers unclenched and dug into the bedcovers. Shit, he was so hard it felt like he was going to explode. Every time his hips rocked forwards against the edge of the bed with another stroke, his leaking cock rubbed hard against the mattress. His mouth fell open, slack and wet. Tears pricked at the corners of his eyes, but he didn’t care. Words started to tumble heedlessly from his lips, and he didn’t care about that either.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he babbled. “I’ll be good. I pruh-promise.  _ Shiro. _ S-so good for you. Please. Oh, please! Ah! Hah….hurts...ohgod. Fuh...fuck, don’t stop...Ow, ow….I’m  _ sorry _ !”

 

Then he choked on whatever the hell had been going to fall out of his mouth when Keith’s hand closed over his own where it held onto the bedspread in a death grip. His touch was tentative, and when Lance didn’t immediately respond, it flinched a bit and started to withdraw. 

 

“ _ NO _ ,” he cried, and grabbed Keith’s hand. Their fingers tangled clumsily, then found the right grip and closed together tightly. And oh,  _ ohhh _ having someone to cling to that way made it even better.

 

****

 

So Lance liked to beg. He wasn’t really surprised for some reason. _Wait a minute._ Keith’s eyes flew open in shock. Lance _liked_ to beg. Don’t stop, he’d said. That meant….that meant he hadn’t just been agreeing with Keith a minute ago out of pride, but because….because….Lance wanted this too? That meant Lance wasn’t going to laugh at him. It meant all those dumbass things he’d said hadn’t been because he was embarrassed by how weird this was, but because he was afraid _Keith_ was going to laugh at _him_. _I’m not a freak_ , he thought. Or at least he wasn’t alone in being a freak. Not alone. Oh god, he’d been alone for so long. His thoughts disconnected abruptly as Shiro spanked him again, much harder, and the pain-pleasure slid through his veins like hot knives, straight to his dick. He whimpered and arched his back farther, his head falling forward, hair sliding over his neck. Baring it. To Shiro. For Shiro. _Everything._ _All of me. For you. Oh please._

 

Shiro did it again, and again, until Keith’s eyes rolled back in his head and he was nearly drooling. Lance’s incoherent pleas sounded so wrecked, so plaintive, that they squeezed at something in Keith’s chest. Blindly, he groped with one arm until his fingers found Lance’s hand, clenched so tightly in the bedcovers that it seemed like his short, blunt nails would rip through the fabric.  _ Oh, he sounds so desperate. So needy. _ But Lance’s hand didn’t move at all, and Keith flinched. Okay, wrong move. Well, that was alright, he’d been wrong plenty of times before. He pulled back quickly, not wanting to intrude or freak Lance out or...whatever. 

 

But Lance stopped him. He could feel the other paladin’s hand shaking as he groped for Keith’s hand. It took a few seconds, but then their fingers slid together, and locked. It made what Shiro was doing to them even better.

 

****

 

Seeing them holding hands was one of the best things Shiro had ever seen. His chest seized up with an almost unbearable flood of emotions he longed to wedge himself between them and share.  _ Not yet, _ he thought. They weren’t quite  _ there _ yet. So he kept on. Lance’s senseless pleas and promises grew thicker, more disjointed. His breath hitched wetly in his throat, followed by a tiny sob. When Shiro spanked him again, it was a little softer. But on the other hand….

 

Keith’s entire body quivered with tension, his back arched in a taut bow, thighs shaking. He moaned louder when Shiro struck him harder, just below the crease where cheek met thigh. No words escaped his mouth, he just whimpered a little or moaned when the wood smacked harder against his reddened skin, lifting his hips in wordless supplication. Shiro had always been able to read Keith better than most people, and could well imagine what must be going through his head, if he was capable of putting those thoughts into words. Armed with foreknowledge, Shiro could readily see that this wasn’t enough for Keith. But for all his sharp edges and prickly bits, Keith was a surprisingly empathetic person. He could hear Lance crying a little, and undoubtedly felt it would be selfish to ask for what he wanted if it might come at the expense of more pain than his friend could handle. He leaned down and purred into Keith’s ear, laying into his ass harder.

 

“Filthy, beautiful boy,” Shiro breathed. “Don’t you dare think I can’t balance this for both of you.” Keith whined through his nose and hid his face in the covers, nodding.

 

So then, Shiro struck Keith twice for every one time he struck Lance, lessening the force behind his strokes for the Blue lion’s pilot while ramping it up for the Red. Red was an awfully good description for Keith at the moment, too. His face was flushes, lips bitten dark and raw, and his ass....his ass was positively scarlet. For a few seconds, Shiro was afraid the spoon was going to give out before Keith did. It was starting to creak a little ominously in his grip. He heard it crack, but on the stroke that broke it, Keith  _ wailed _ . All the tension flowed from his body like water through a sieve and he collapsed against the bed, muffling sobs into the fabric as he clutched Lance’s hand tighter than ever. Shiro dropped both halves of the spoon to the floor and dropped to his knees between the two boys... _ his _ boys’ bodies. His hands stroked and petted their backs, sliding up under their shirts, finding their skin damp with sweat.

 

“Shh,” he murmured softly. “Easy. I’ve got you. You both did so good. You were so good for more. So beautiful.” It didn’t take very long before they both stopped crying. Kitchen spoons weren’t terribly vicious weapons of punishment, after all. He pushed forward with his plan the moment he was certain they’d both calmed down a little. “Now,” he said, leaning a little closer, “kiss and make up.”

 

They turned their heads to look at each other. Shiro’s breath caught a little. Oh, they were pretty; dark lashes spiked together with tears, eyes wet and blown dark, their mouths slack with heavy breathing. They hesitated.

 

“Or should I go and get my belt out of the closet,” he growled softly. Lance shivered, but Keith  _ shuddered _ . Shiro filed that one away for future reference. Someday, when they’d all built enough trust, if that could be done, “break Keith Kogane into tiny sobbing pieces” would go on his to-do list. But he didn’t think about it for long, watching instead, breathless and hopeful, as they hitched towards each other, blushing and not quite able to look each other in the eye. Because of that, their aim was a little sloppy. Keith’s mouth hit Lance’s more at the corner than on target. Shiro hummed happily in his throat when they shifted a little and their mouths lined up. Watching them kiss each other, awkward, inexperienced and a little sloppy, went straight to the top of his favorite ways to pass the time. 

 

Lance made a broken noise. Keith groaned. They heaved themselves upright and lunged for each other. Lance whined a little when his ass came into contact with the mattress, but it morphed into a helpless groan when Keith growled softly and climbed onto him, latching his arms around the taller young man’s neck and sucking his tongue into his mouth. Shiro didn’t think either one of them even remembered that their pants were puddled on the floor until he ran his hands gently over their thighs. They stiffened in embarrassment and drew back, a spider silk-thin line of saliva stretching between their reddened lips, then snapping.

 

“Oh, no you don’t,” he said in a low snarl that allowed for no disobedience. Their faces turned towards him as he stood up and slowly stripped his shirt over his head. “Take your shirts off and get the rest of the way up the bed,” he ordered as he thumbed open the top button of his pants. They scrambled to obey, but at least now their awkwardness had nothing to do with tension or discomfort about each other. It was because neither one of them could take their eyes off him.

 

“Oh my god, dude, look at him,” whispered Lance at Keith after they’d helped each other struggle out of their shirts, staring at Shiro. “He’s so ripped. It’s like...art.” For once, Keith didn’t argue with him at all. He just nodded.

 

“I want to suck his dick,” breathed Keith.

 

“Ohh, fight me,” said Lance.

 

“Share?” Keith offered, drooling a little. 

 

“You are  _ on _ , my dude.”

 

Shiro grinned, and dropped his pants. Their eyes widened.

 

“Holy…” gasped Lance.

 

“....shit,” finished Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> C'mon, gimme gimme. Do you want the D? Ohh, it's definitely a capital D. Great big, bold face, the one at the end of the Hollywood hills sign big. Should I write it? Who gets it first? Or do you wanna just imagine it? Cause that's okay too, I can leave it here. 
> 
> I can't help it. I am stupidly insecure over this fic. I'm not totally sure why. I think it's because everything else I write is from fandoms I've discovered as an adult. But my very first cartoon crush was the ORIGINAL Keith Kogane, who was the Black Lion's pilot and leader of the Voltron force in the 80's cartoon series, and I felt really weird about it because he wasn't a real person, he was artwork, for fuck's sake, but oh man, I had it for him so bad. And it was my first exposure to guys in anime or cartoons (we called Voltron a cartoon in the 80's even though IT was actually an anime and the current show is more of a cartoon, which...whatever) acting like they were crushing on another guy, and I didn't even have words for what I was seeing at that time, but it also made me feel weird, in an intriguing way. So if I really think about it, Voltron is entirely to blame for my interest in Yaoi, just before I'd ever heard the word and even before I was really aware that men could even be gay, because at that point I'd never been exposed to any kind of gay at all. So yeah, I feel weirdly off balance and insecure about this fic and I could really use your thoughts. I'll just...be over here in a corner. Yeah.
> 
> Find me on Tumblr at:
> 
> Charis2770.tumblr.com. This blog will tell you about me, why I write the things I write, and link you to my other blogs if you're interested in learning more about the kink I write!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things begin to progress. Despite Shiro's better (?) judgment, some sexytimes start to ensue....Keith and Lance are just so SLIPPERY. Then there is some very important conversation. And then....well, things start to heat up again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally posted part of this chapter as a teaser, and then just added more to it when it started getting really long on me. But I noticed that practically nobody had seen it. So I went back and deleted the teaser and am reposting the whole thing as a new chapter and hopefully people will realize that it's been updated. 
> 
> Also I'll apologize once again that it apparently takes me a stupid amount of time to get people FUCKING LAID. Geez! 
> 
> But when I'm writing about Poly relationships, especially ones that are going to include ANY aspect of BDSM as a part of their dynamic, I really do believe that talking about things is vitally important, or all you're going to end up with is a short string of one night stands, some bittersweet memories and a lot of hurt feelings. And Shiro is way too responsible a person to behave that recklessly, no matter how much he'd like to get to the good stuff, or how long he has to wait for it. 
> 
> So, you're getting SOME smut in this chapter, then some really important talk about poly relationships and kink negotiation. But I promise that the next part, some of which I've already written, is going to be be pretty much pure porn (well, and feels, I mean come on, this is also a love story, Shiro's not even real and I'M in love with the guy...I mean, come on really? All that decency and kindness and how much he's suffered and how he always puts his team first plus that sexy dark side underneath? Yeah, gimme!)

Shiro managed to remember to lower the bed….realizing just as he was about to climb onto it that  _ just in case _ something actually happened, it would probably be a bad thing for anyone to fall off of it at waist height….and then, considering the amount of space left on it with Lace and Keith all but  _ cuddled up _ together at the head of it  _ oh god _ ...even thought to press the button to widen its expanse a little bit.  _ Then _ he did what he’d been dreaming about for a lot longer than he’d been willing to admit to himself. He climbed onto the bed and crawled up it, looking them in the eyes, watching them watch him with wide eyes and parted lips, and nudged them both aside a little, thrilling at the way they each almost scrambled to obey him, to turn on his back and lie back between them.

 

Another awkward moment arose as it seemed to sink in to both of them that the  _ three _ of them were together. In Shiro’s bed. And naked. He could feel Keith and Lance shrinking back from each other again. Grabbing one of each of their hands, he tugged them together over the middle of his stomach, lacing their fingers together and then covering them with his own. 

 

“I don’t understand this,” Lance huffed awkwardly. “You...you….you said you had  _ feelings _ for both of us, but Sh-Shiro, that makes about as much sense as Zarkon in a ballgown dancing the tango with a Balmeran!”

 

Keith snorted at the metaphor, trying to act like he didn’t think it was funny. Shiro had a hard time finding much of anything concerning Zarkon very funny, having been at the bastard’s mercy for too long, but the mental image was pretty humorous. He chuckled comfortably and didn’t let go of their hands.

 

“I don’t care,” said Keith again, fiercely. “I...I’ll share. I don’t…”

 

“It makes perfect sense,” Shiro interrupted him. “And we  _ can _ share, but only if it’s everyone doing it, not just me sharing the two of you. Lance, how does it not make sense for me to have feelings for both you and Keith when both of you have feelings for me and for each other?”

 

“Whoa, wait, wait...who said….I don’t...that’s just crazy talk,” spluttered Lance indignantly.

 

“That’s too bad,” said Shiro softly. “Just a minute ago you were talking about sharing something that sounded pretty good to me.” Lance’s face flushed. His mouth fell open, but for once he couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

 

“You’re annoying.” Keith’s voice was so soft they could barely hear him. Shiro glanced down at the smaller boy, on the verge of reprimanding him, but something in Keith’s expression and body language stopped him. Keith’s free hand was clenched in a tight fist. He was staring fixedly at his own legs, his cheeks red with humiliation. For a moment, it seemed like that was all he was going to say, but after several long moments, he heaved a huge, shuddery sigh. “You’re annoying, and you’re too loud all the time, and you always act like you have to be the best at everything. You never stop bragging, and you flirt with every girl you meet and it makes you look  _ stupid. _ ”

 

“Gee, thanks Keith,” snapped Lance angrily. “I can see that  _ this _ is a colossal mistake. Let go of me, Shiro. I want to leave. I can tell when I’m not appreciated.”

 

“You’re all of those things,” Keith went on as if Lance hadn’t even spoken, “but I still can’t stop dreaming about you. I can’t stop imagining what you’d do if I just kissed you when your stupid big mouth is flapping. I can’t stop looking at you and imagining what it’d be like to do the things I dream about you. You and Shiro. And I can’t stop getting fucking stupid, annoying hard-ons in my suit when we spar sometimes. Even when we’re fighting it happens.  _ That’s _ why it’s okay with me to share. Be...because even if you don’t feel the same way, then...then if I have to wait my turn to be with Shiro, it’s okay, because I know you’re really into him, and he says he’s into you too, so that makes it okay because it’ll make you happy. You...you make a lot of jokes and stuff but everybody can see you’re lonely. I mean, we all are. But I don’t like it when I think about you or Shiro being lonely. Me….I….I’m  _ used _ to it, so it’s okay, but you…”

 

“Shut up,” said Lance breathlessly. He lunged across Shiro and grabbed Keith awkwardly, his long, slim fingers curling around the back of the red paladin’s neck, and he smashed their mouths together. Keith made a tiny, despairing noise in this throat, but kissed Lance back like he was starving for it. Lance pulled back after a few seconds of messy, wet making out and pressed their foreheads together. “God, you’re such an asshole,” he muttered. “I thought it was just  _ me _ . You always seem so pissed, and you act so damn smug when you’re better than me at something, and it drives me so crazy. Because there was  _ no way _ you feel that way. It  _ had _ to be only me. Except you’re saying it’s not.” He started to laugh helplessly. 

 

“I don’t think it’s funny,” muttered Keith a little sullenly.

 

“It’s not,” gasped Lance, still laughing. “Oh quiznak, it’s not even a little bit funny! I mean, it’s been obvious for like, forever that you have this huge man crush on Shiro, and you guys are perfect for each other, and I’ve been trying for so damn long to stop having these stupid,  _ pointless _ dreams about both of you. Not, you-and-Shiro dreams, cause that would just be torture, but you-and-Shiro dreams where I’m in the middle and...and…” He slowly trailed off, as though realizing what he’d just said. Out loud. He clapped his mouth shut, but Keith stared at him, his eyes going dark.

 

“Yes,” he said darkly.

 

“Huh?”

 

“Yes, as in let’s do that. But only if I get to be in the middle sometimes too,” said Keith in a low voice. Lance shivered.

 

“O-oh,” he said faintly.

 

“Hey,” said Shiro, nudging them both with his elbows. “Remember me? I’m still here. I think…”

 

Two heads swivelled up to look at him with an intensity that had his breath catching in his throat. Then, as if they’d somehow choreographed it, both boys lunged at the same time. Three-way kisses, it turned out, were messy, wet, uncoordinated and a little bit awkward. Not one of them complained. Shiro felt his brains trying very hard to just short the hell out. He pushed them both away gently with a monumental effort of willpower.

 

“Okay,” he gasped. “That...that was good. I’m glad we all seem to be on the same page now. But there are going to have to be some ground rules…”

 

“You can make them,” said Keith breathlessly.

 

“I’m good with that too,” panted Lance. 

 

Shiro closed his eyes and bit back a soft groan at their words and the hard clench of want that sucked him in at the way they both offered him control so easily, like it was a foregone conclusion. That was his first mistake, and the point where he probably lost his chance at controlling the situation into a rational, adult discussion. He felt them move, but was too busy telling his body to calm down so he could remain rational to really notice.

 

His eyes flew open on a strangled cry at the sensation of hot, wet tongues. One lapping at the head of his cock while the other flicked at the length of his shaft with little kitten licks. Keith, it was Keith. Lance rolled his tongue around the abruptly leaking slit at the top. They both rolled their eyes up to look at him. Digging his teeth into his lip, he thrust his hands into their hair...and oh damn, it was as soft as he’d always thought it would be. He tugged, but they weren’t dissuaded. Keith whimpered. Lance moaned.

 

“What are you doing?” whispered Shiro hoarsely. They pulled their mouths back as if on cue and blinked at him innocently.

 

“Sharing,” they said, both at the same time. 

 

It was too perfect. Their mouths felt too good. Seeing the way they synced up so effortlessly, the way they sometimes did when they worked together to take down enemies in their lions was too beautiful. Shiro went down without a fight. It simply felt  _ too _ good. Something he hadn’t taken into consideration when thinking this through, examining it from all sides armed with the information he had and all his own observations up to that point, being brutally honest with himself about desires and feelings….coming to the conclusion that it was worth the risk and that he wanted; no he  _ needed _ to try to let himself feel again after so long and that he had absolutely zero desire to choose between one or the other of them...was the fact that nobody had touched Shiro intimately in well over a year. He considered himself a man with better than average self control, and he’d taught himself to keep his big head the master of his smaller one a long time ago. Shiro had never been one to follow blindly where his dick led him. There had been no unfortunate entanglements. No pregnancy scares. No behavior unbecoming of an officer. But a year spent in the cold, dark, hideously lonely cells of the Galra’s dungeons where the only contact he’d had with other beings had been when it was a kill-or-be-killed situation, or he was being experimented upon or tortured by those evil druids had been even more kinds of hell than he’d realized. He simply hadn’t even considered the possibility that he’d be so touch-starved that the messy, uncoordinated lips and tongues of two nineteen-year-old boys would unmake him so completely and so quickly. 

 

There wasn’t even any rhythm or steady friction to it, but he knew within a couple of minutes that he was in trouble. It was even difficult to think about how embarrassing it might be to lose it so fast in front of them when they both seemed so obviously eager to let him take the lead. For a few seconds, he tried to think about stopping them, to preserve a little of his dignity and enforce his position in this proposed relationship, but he paused in the very act of fisting his hands tightly in their hair to yank them off before it was too late. 

 

Things were bound to get confusing with three people involved. Hell, a relationship of two could be fraught with enough peril as it was, but he knew that negotiating the landmine of emotions, rivalries, potential jealousy and teenaged hormones to find a balance that worked was likely to present enough of a challenge  _ without _ any of them being less than honest. If he expected them to be honest with him and themselves, he’d better start out by setting the right example. Besides, it felt too fucking good. And they took turns so beautifully, switching back and forth between sucking the head of his cock into their reddened mouths, lapping at his shaft and balls, and sometimes pausing to kiss each other through soft, sexy little moans and whimpers. Even when he pulled their hair.  _ Especially _ then. He threw his head back against the pillows and groaned helplessly, fingers carding softly through their silky hair and petting down their backs as he just...let them do whatever they wanted. Truth, then.

 

“Guys,” he panted hoarsely, “this….hah….oh, you’re being so good...ngh, this isn’t….gonna last very long.”

 

They both froze for a second in surprise, but Lance shivered and whined softly in his throat at the praise, and Keith’s features hardened with determination, and they went at his dripping erection with renewed enthusiasm Shiro stopped trying to hold back. His hips arched helplessly into the hot, wet suction and pressure of mouths and tongues as he gasped at the intensity of the pleasure curling and then spiking through his belly. Too many months of keeping his thoughts and feelings to himself fought with his desire to show them, let them see and hear how good they were making him feel, how much he wanted this, wanted  _ them _ , but he fought back the bitter inner voice of his own self-doubt and opened his mouth. The heartfelt, chest,deep moan was easy. Words were a little harder, but since lust was scrambling his brains anyway, it was a little easier...besides, he couldn’t string together a coherent sentence right then if he tried. Aside from that, he just tried to make sure every bit of breathless, hitched babble he let fall out was the absolute truth.

 

“God….god, so good. Feels so fuh...fucking good. Being so good for me. D-damn. Wanted you both so much.  _ Ah. Sh-shit, yeah, right there. _ Hahh...nobody’s….touch...touched me in so long. Hn. Fig-figured I was too defiled to even…. _ ah, fuck _ ….think about touching either of you…”

 

“ _ Shiro. _ ” whispered Keith, sounding like he was about to cry again for a second, and….

 

“You’re  _ wrong _ ,” said Lance fiercely, then they both dove back down on him and his back arched, his fingers clenching in their hair, not forcing or even guiding them, just hanging on, but he definitely noticed the way Keith whimpered and gave a tiny nod so in the back of his brain where he hoped he might remember it later he tried to make a note of that. His eyes kept wanting to screw closed against the rapidly spiraling pleasure tightening in his groin, to just revel in the sensation of it, but he wanted to watch them more. His cock and balls were slick with their saliva and his leaking by then, so their lips and tongues glided easily over his rigid, straining flesh. A low, rumbling growl of possessive pleasure vibrated deep in his chest. Keith shivered again.

 

“Look…. _ ah, fuck _ ….look at you, sharing so nice,” he rambled some more, spilling the truths of his thoughts and desires out in breathless gasps he didn’t know if they even really registered, but he liked the way his voice made them both squirm a little and moan around his cock. “Mine,” he gasped, hips jerking a little as his balls drew up tight against his body, “my boys. Hah...Nn...I’m. I’m gonna come oh  _ fffuccck… _ ”

 

If he wasn’t too busy seeing stars and coming from all the way down at his toes, it would probably have been a little funny the way they both dove for the head of his dick again at his whispered words rather than pulling back as his warning had been intended to allow them time to do. Their lips collided, sucking sloppily at him and sort of each other too and his spunk ended up dripping off their swollen lips and down their chins and onto his still-twitching cock and Keith had some on his cheek and they were the most gorgeous sight Shiro had ever seen. 

 

Keith and Lance stared at each other, crouched over Shiro’s hips, their faces blank for a few seconds, then Lance snickered.

 

“Dude, you look gross,” he wheezed at Keith. Keith narrowed his eyes a little. He stuck his tongue out and  _ licked _ Shiro’s come off his lips and as far down his chin as he could reach, then his hands flashed out with those faster-than-lightning reflexes that made him such an instinctive pilot and an amazing hand-to-hand fighter. He grabbed Lance by the sides of his head and yanked as he leaned close. Smashing their mouths together and taking advantage of the taller boy’s startled gasp, he shoved his tongue into Lance’s mouth, coated and dripping with come. It should have been disgusting. Lance’s hands shoved uselessly at Keith, because although he was several inches shorter, Keith was startlingly strong for his size, until he heard Shiro swear softly and fervently. Their eyes slid sideways to look at him and Lance’s eyebrows went up at the look of heated and slightly embarrassed lust on the older man’s face.

 

“O-oh yeah?” he said, a smirk tugging upwards at the corner of his mouth when Keith finally let go. Shiro closed his eyes for a second, then opened them and nodded. Lance stuck his tongue out and showed him the white spunk pooled on his tongue, then curled it back into his mouth and made a show out of swallowing it. Shiro growled softly. 

 

“Ooh,” said Keith, grinning evilly at Lance, who grinned back, then they made a filthy show out of licking Shiro’s come off each other’s faces before bending back down to clean the rest of it off his spent cock, which was already making a halfhearted attempt at a twitch or two of renewed interest. He was fucked. Completely, well and truly fucked. They were going to kill him. For the first time in a very long time, Shiro began to think he might die a very happy man.

 

****

 

They crawled back up to snuggle up on either side of him, and Shiro felt, for the first time in his life, as though pieces of the puzzle he was made of and had been missing, not even knowing it, were slotted suddenly and smoothly into place. He wrapped his arms around them, tracing idle circles over the soft, firm skin of their backs and shoulders. 

 

“I never knew you were such a pervert, boss dude,” snickered Lance, burying his nose in Shiro’s throat.

 

“Me either,” whispered Keith, although the teasing tone in Lance’s voice was notably absent from his. Keith’s voice sounded hungry and a little bit desolate at the same time.

 

“Well,” said Shiro a little uncomfortably, though his arm tightened around Keith, pulling him a little bit closer, “to be fair, I’m not the only one who’s had secrets around here….” He glanced down at Lance, feeling at least a little bit mollified by the way the younger paladin’s ears turned red and he hid his face before continuing. “But that took me by surprise as much as it did you, I guess. I mean, no one’s ever done anything like that with me before and I just….I don’t know. Maybe it’s just you two.”

 

“Or maybe you’re a come slut,” muttered Lance, who, predictably, responded with a jab any time he felt off-balance. Shiro grinned, deciding to choose  _ not _ to be embarrassed about it, then reached down and patted Lance on the ass, not particularly gently.

 

“Maybe I am,” he said easily. “Regardless, I know we’ve got a lot to learn about each other. What we like and don’t like, and I hope we’re going to have plenty of time to do it in. That’s what I want. I...didn’t actually mean for that to happen so fast, but you guys are sneaky, and it just...I haven’t…”

 

“Shiro,” said Keith softly, “you don’t have to explain. I can’t imagine what it was like for you. And you only ever have to talk about it if you want to. But I get being lonely. You don’t always have to keep yourself under such tight control all the time. Not with me. I don’t  _ want _ you to. I...I’m not saying that to exclude Lance...I just don’t wanna speak for you, man, y’know?” He added the last part, lifting his head to look over Shiro’s chest at Lance.

 

“No, I...I get that. It’s cool. And...Keith’s right. You deserve to feel good too, Shiro. More than anybody else I know. You’re always looking out for everybody, and it always feels like you’re ready to just...throw yourself in front of anything that might try to hurt us. It makes you a good leader, but shit man, it’s gotta be stressful as fuck, and we  _ do _ know how to take care of ourselves. I think...well I mean it’s obvious mullet-head and I have at least a few kinks in common. And you’re saying it’s something we can figure out together. It’s just...that’s gotta mean it’s okay for you to want stuff too, right?”

 

“As long as you both understand that you always have the right to say no, if anything anybody else wants makes you uncomfortable. And you always have the right to put a stop to something if you feel like it’s going too far. We’ll come up with a code word for that, something everybody can remember even if things are really hot and heavy, and it’ll be like a promise I’ll make to you, that no matter what’s going on, I will always stop if either of you say that word. And you’ll promise to use it if you need to, and to respect it from each other as well. If...I mean...if this is really something you both want to do. I think we should take a second to think about that before we go any further. I know how I feel. I need to hear both of you say it too. I have feelings for both of you. I don’t want to have to choose between you. I don’t think I could. This isn’t just about sex for me, either.”

 

“So….so you’ll be like, our Dom and we’ll be your subs, but we’ll all be...like, dating too?” said Keith haltingly. Lance raised his head and stared at Keith with his mouth hanging open a little. Shiro knew his own expression was awfully similar. “What?” asked Keith a little defensively. “I’ve known for a long time the kinda stuff that turns me on, even if I haven't  _ done _ any of it until tonight. And I didn’t  _ just _ look at porn about it. I read stuff.”

 

“There’s more than porn?” asked Lance, sounding fascinated and awkward at the same time. Keith rolled his eyes, while Shiro chuckled.

 

“Don’t feel bad, Lance. All I’ve ever done it try to make myself not think about things like this because I was afraid it made me a terrible person, to….like the things I like. I’ve never even gotten as far as the porn, especially not since I escaped from the Galra.” This seemed to make Lance feel better.

 

“But it’s not just since then that you thought about it?” demanded Keith, pulling himself free of Shiro’s arm enough to raise up on his elbow and frown at him. “Because there’s nothing bad about it, you know that, right? It isn’t about violence, or hurting people….well, not more than they want, anyway. It’s...something you want?” The fear and hope in those violet-blue eyes stabbed at Shiro a little.

 

“I think it’s always been a part of me,” he said gently. “It’s part of why I kept you at arm’s length back before I left for Kerberos. You were this beautiful boy, and the way you acted, like you’d do anything I wanted you to...it was so damned appealing to me, and I didn’t want to hurt you. You have no idea how hard it was to keep my distance sometimes.”

 

“I thought you only looked at me like a kid brother,” muttered Keith, flushing a little.

 

“I tried very hard to treat you like one  _ because _ I never thought of you as one, and I knew I was leaving, and that it wouldn’t be fair to start anything….and the things my brain wanted me to think about doing to you made me feel like a horrible person.”

 

“You were wrong,” said Keith flatly.

 

“I know that now. I know that what I want isn’t about hurting either one of you. I want to take care of you. I want to make you feel good. I...I get that some people enjoy a little bit of pain sometimes, and there’s nothing bad about that, as long as everybody involved is okay with it.”

 

“Okay,” said Keith softly, a tentative but absolutely breathtakingly lovely smile turning up the corners of his mouth. “I want that.”

 

“Yeah….yeah, I...me too,” whispered Lance.

 

“With each other too?” prompted Shiro gently. They looked at each other shyly.

 

“I...I like you both,” admitted Keith first. Lance frowned a little and fiddled nervously with an edge of the blanket.

 

“Me too….but….but if Shiro’s the….whatchyacallit...the Dom? Then what are me and Keith to each other? Do I...sorry Keith, but you’re kinda pushy sometimes. Do I gotta obey him too?”

 

“Lance, you don’t have to obey anything from  _ anyone _ unless you’re comfortable with it,” said Shiro firmly. “Not when it’s just the three of us,” he amended. “I’m only the actual leader when we’re training or fighting. The little bit I know about how this works is that it’s the...the word Keith used, the subs….”

 

“It means submissive,” clarified Keith. “And Dom means Dominant.”

 

“Showoff,” muttered Lance, and stuck out his tongue. Keith returned the gesture. Shiro chuckled.

 

“Stop that. Anyway, I think the way it  _ has _ to work, for it to be right, is that it’s really the submissive parts of the relationship who have the real power, because you’re always allowed to say no, and I only do stuff to you because you let me. No, you don’t have to obey Keith, and if he tries to make you, he’ll have me to answer to.”

 

“I don’t want to be the boss of you,” Keith said softly. “I...I argued with you all the time because you just frustrated me so much, and I was pretty fucking confused about the way you made me feel, and I’m...well, I’m a competitive person. I don’t think that’s gonna change, but only in training or when we’re flying. I have to always try to get better, try to win, but I’ll try to be better about it. If you’ll try to...not act like such a big-mouth and make me wanna knock you on your ass.”

 

“I...I guess I can try,” said Lance. “I mean, I mostly act that way because I worry all the time that you’re so much better than me at everything already. I just...want to feel like I matter to the team. Like everybody wouldn’t be fine with just you if I wasn’t here.” 

 

“We couldn’t even form Voltron without you, dumbass,” said Keith softly. “And I’d get my ass shot out of the sky doing some of the stunts I pull if you weren’t such a good shot.” Lance’s eyes widened.

 

“You mean that?”

 

“No, I’m lying my ass off,” sighed Keith. “Of course I mean it. I know I don’t always think before I act. You’re better at that than me. You’re just not good at keeping your mouth shut.”

 

“I knew it,” crowed Lance in triumph. “I knew you couldn’t do without my brilliance!”

 

“Lance,” growled Keith.

 

“Um. Yeah, okay so it’s gonna take a little work. But I’ll try,” said Lance, having the grace to look a little sheepish.

 

“Then everybody agrees that this is what we all want? To try, anyway?” asked Shiro softly.

 

“Yeah. You be our...our Dom. Because I do want that, I think I’ve always wanted it,” said Lance, blushing. “I mean, I didn’t know what it was called or anything, but I know I’ve thought about stuff like...well, like what you did to us earlier….”

 

“You have a hard time saying the word ‘spanking,’ don’t you,” said Keith curiously. Lance’s ears turned red.

 

“I know it’s weird. I don’t know why. I guess cause I thought about it even when I was pretty little, and I always thought it was something bad, that I had to keep a secret or people’d laugh at me. I’ll probably get over it. But it isn’t just that. I’ve thought about...being tied up. And...and someone telling me what to do. In bed, I mean. Girls and guys. I’ve….actually known I was bi for a few years, I just didn’t want anyone to know. That’s why I always flirt so much. I don’t know why. I’ll stop though. If we’re gonna be together, I don’t cheat. I promise. I’m not that kind of person. I liked the idea of….of pleasing someone. I don’t mean just being good in bed. I don’t even know if I am. Will be. I’ve only kissed a few girls and done some sorta...groping and stuff. But I mean like, wanting that person to think I was  _ good. _ For them.”

 

“I know you’re gonna be a good boy for me,” said Shiro softly, brushing his fingertips through Lance’s hair. It made him shiver, an embarrassing whimper trembling in his throat. “But,” Shiro continued musingly, “I think this one really wants to be bad sometimes.” He looked down at Keith. The other boy’s eyes went dark with arousal, his lips parting on a tiny, silent gasp.

 

“Shiro,” he breathed.

 

“You didn’t think I noticed the way you begged for more with your whole body when I spanked you, or the way you reacted when I mentioned getting my belt out of the closet,” teased Shiro gently. 

 

“No….I just….Shiro, you don’t have to,” said Keith softly, though the longing was obvious in his eyes. “I...I’ve seen how violence bothers you. How you do your best to avoid it. I don’t  _ need _ it. Being yours, it’s more than enough. It’s what I’ve wanted practically since I met you. You don’t have to do more than you…” 

 

“I don’t think  _ you _ get to decide for me what I do and don’t  _ want _ to do to you,” growled Shiro in a low voice that made Keith’s whole body break out in goosebumps. “There’s a big difference between the games we’ll be playing together and real violence. Part of the reason I avoid it, Keith, is because there is a part of me that likes it, and I don’t want to like it too much for the wrong reasons. I will never _ harm _ you. But if you think I won’t  _ love _ making you scream, making you cry for me until you beg for mercy, then you’ve got a lot of misconceptions about me we’re going to have to work on.”

 

“Oh  _ god _ ,” whispered Keith, pressing his face into Shiro’s neck and arching against his body, a soft, needy whine slipping from his mouth.

 

“We can spend a lot of time talking about everybody’s fantasies, figuring out what our limits are, what things we want to share and what things should be reserved for one on one time. I think it’s going to be important in a relationship like this that we’re really careful to balance spending time with all of us together  _ and _ with each of us spending one-on-one time with the others. Finding the right balance so nobody feels left out or has a chance to get jealous...that’s going to be important. And it’s  _ really _ important to speak up if anybody starts to have those kinds of issues, or other kinds of problems. Communication isn’t easy for everyone, but if this is going to work, we all have to promise to try,” said Shiro solemnly. Both younger boys looked a little uncomfortable about the communication thing, and Shiro knew that all three of them had a few issues with being truly honest about their feelings, but they were going to have to make a real effort, himself included, if they were going to have a chance at being happy together for the long haul. And he found that he wanted the long haul. If they survived Zarkon. Or at least, for as long as they had. 

 

“I’ll try,” said Lance.

 

“....Yeah,” Keith agreed. “It’s not my best thing, but I’ll try.”

 

“Me too,” said Shiro. “We have to. Because I really want this to work. So finding the right balance is important.”

 

“Yeah,” said Keith, peeking up at him and then glancing over at Lance. “I can think of one thing right now.”

 

“Oh? What’s that?”

 

“Which one of us are you gonna fuck first?”

 

Shiro opened his mouth, then closed it again. He sighed, and bit back the small flash of irritation. Leave it to Keith to throw a wrench of potential conflict into the gears just as they were starting to get them turning. But Lance reached over to poke Keith in the arm.

 

“No worries, dude,” he said airily. “Shit son, it made my jaw ache just tryin’ to fit my mouth past the  _ head. _ I dunno if I’m ready for that yet. I know I act like I’ve got all this experience, but Shiro’s right, and we do gotta be honest about stuff. I’ve never done that before, and I...well, I guess I’m a little nervous about it, and if you ever tell anybody I said that, I’ll call you a damn liar to your face.” He blushed and played with the blanket some more, then looked at Keith again. “Besides,” he went on, his face softening a little. “You’ve had a thing for Shiro since like, forever. I can’t imagine what it was like for you when you heard them say he was dead. Even if I  _ was _ sure I was ready, I’d want it to be you.”

 

The tension in Shiro’s gut vanished as quickly as it had come. He smiled at Lance and gave his shoulders a small squeeze.

 

“Now see,  _ that’s _ exactly what I’m talking about,” he said warmly, and Lance blushed but couldn’t conceal his happy smile at Shiro’s praise. “And don’t worry. We don’t have to do anything like that until you’re sure you’re ready. I’m pretty sure there are a  _ lot _ of other ways to make each other feel good without having to do that. We can all take some time to get to know each other better before taking things that far.”

 

“Wait,  _ what _ ?” Keith disentangled himself from Shiro’s arm, and the look on his face reminded the older paladin so much of the boy he’d met back at the Garrison….what seemed like a lifetime ago now….rebellious, frustrated by all the regulations when all he wanted to do was  _ fly _ , ready to fly off the handle at a moment’s notice. All fire and passion held barely (and badly) in check. 

 

“Keith,” Shiro soothed, lifting a hand to stroke the young man’s cheek softly, “we have all the time in the world. There’s no need to r…”

 

“No we don’t,” cried Keith, grabbing him by the wrist, his fingers digging in almost painfully. “You don’t know that! If we defeat Zarkon, then yeah, maybe we’ll get to a point where we can sit back and breathe and take all the time we want to...I don’t know, explore shit and take long walks on a goddamn beach and sit up all night talking about every little dream and fantasy. But Shiro, that’s a different world, and it’s not one we can afford to live in. The world we  _ do _ live in is one where we can hear those fucking alarms calling us to the lions at any damn second, and every time that happens, we risk  _ everything. _ I’m not saying I don’t want the world you’re talking about, because I  _ do. _ I want it more than anything. If I let myself think about waking up on a Saturday morning knowing the only thing I have to worry about is what we’re gonna have for breakfast because we’re probably gonna argue about it because Lance will want some weird Cuban thing and I’ll want chicken and waffles and you’ll try to make us eat something healthy….and then next, what we’re gonna do all day….which would hopefully be stay in bed naked and make Lance sandwiches….” He paused for a second and looked over at Lance whose eyes had widened and was staring at Keith like he’d never seen him before. Keith’s eyes softened just a little bit. “Lance I….I’m  _ not _ saying I wanna be the boss of you, cause I don’t, I want Shiro to be the one in charge, but I….I do think maybe sometime I’d like to fuck you, if you wanted to let me, but only if it’s okay with everybody…”

 

“Uh,” said Lance intelligently. It wasn’t much of an answer, but the expansion of his pupils and the way his hips jerked unconsciously was a better one. Half of Keith’s mouth hitched up on one side before he looked back to Shiro, refusing to be deterred despite how distraction-worthy Lance happened to look at the moment.

 

“But  _ this _ world? Shiro, this world is the one where we have to grab everything we can with both hands and hold on as tight as we can and as often as we can because we can’t afford to count on tomorrow. We  _ should _ hope for it, and we can plan for it, but we can’t live in it yet. I’m not gonna get any more sure than I have been for the past...I don’t even know. Forever. Since the first time you looked at me and said that stupid ‘Patience yields focus’ shit you always told the classes you’d TA and that you keep shoving at us in training.” His deep blue eyes were so dark with his need and angry frustration that they almost seemed black. “I don’t need time,” he muttered, shoulders sagging dejectedly because he’d never won an argument with Shiro whenever Shiro talked about things like patience, and didn’t expect this to be any different. “I need you. I need  _ this. _ As much of it as I can get, for as long as we have.”

 

“Yeah, brace yourself, big man,” said Lance, shifting uncomfortably at Shiro’s side, “cause I’m gonna rock the whole galaxy about now...but. I agree with him.” Keith’s jaw dropped as he stared at Lance,  who stuck out his tongue. “Don’t let it go to your head, Sparky,” he said sassily. “But yeah. Just cause your monster dick makes me feel a little like swooning over here doesn’t mean I think we oughta put on the  _ brakes.  _  I’m like, so not surprised Keith’s some kind of size freak. It’s like you said too, there’s a lot of other stuff we can do that doesn’t scare me. Like watching you fuck his smartass….erm…. _ ass _ ...into this mattress. And me an’ my virtue are really good with  _ now. _ ”

 

“How about I fuck your smartass  _ mouth _ while he does it?” growled Keith, getting up on his hands and knees to lean across Shiro and suck Lance’s tongue into his mouth. Lance whimpered, giving up without much of a struggle and kissing him back. 

 

Shiro tried. He really did. His rational, responsible mind tried to come up with valid reasons why they should wait a little longer, but it was so damn distracting watching them make out like that, and their previous discussion had already covered  _ most _ of the bases he felt like were the really important ones, and they were so  _ pretty _ and oh...oh, they were both so  _ hard _ and it was so obvious when they were kneeling there right over him with their mouths glued together. And he’d wanted Keith just as much for just as long. And the kicker? Every word the red paladin had said was absolutely true. There were few guarantees in their lives. And tomorrow definitely wasn’t one of them. 

 

“ _ Fuck _ ,” he muttered softly to himself, then, “You win,” he said louder. Keith froze, which looked pretty damn funny with his tongue sticking out, in the process of licking its way back into Lance’s mouth while the other boy moaned and opened for him so nicely. Shiro couldn’t help it. He laughed a little, which was interrupted by Keith tearing himself away from Lance and slamming his body into Shiro’s, effectively ending the laugh by knocking most of the air out of Shiro’s lungs. Keith’s mouth on his was hot and desperate and wet and perfect.

 

“I do?” gasped the younger boy in the tiny pauses he took between kisses for air. “You will?”

 

“Yeah,” rasped Shiro, rocking up against Keith’s body where the young paladin straddled him, his satiety from his earlier orgasm a thing of the past at the feel of all that perfect, soft, firm skin rubbing against every inch of him. “Just don’t get too used to arguing with me like that and getting what you want out of it.”

 

“You think?” grinned Keith, then gasped softly at the rut of Shiro’s slowly filling cock against his groin. 

 

“Mm. I think it’s a good way to get your perfect little ass punished again,” growled Shiro. Keith’s eyes fluttered closed for a moment, his breath hitching, then he opened them again and stared down at Shiro in perfect seriousness.

 

“Then I’ll be gettin’ what I want out of it either way,” he said breathlessly. 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally there is a chapter that delivers on the promised smut this has all been leading up to! Which means that basically Keith loses his virginity in a really lovely, lengthy, descriptive way that required like 16 pages for some reason.
> 
> Also there are feels.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noted at the beginning that this story takes place somewhere in the first season. If you haven't seen the second season, I won't spoil it, but there are a few descriptive things about Keith's body and sexual response that hint at his lineage without giving it away.
> 
> And no. NO, this will not ever be turning into any kind of A/B/o series of any kind, because that's just not one of my jams, but I do think physiological differences are possible.
> 
> And I have chosen here to explain the lack of condom use by having there be no std's on Earth, them being prevented by childhood vaccinations in the same way that chickenpox are. This is not true in real life. Please practice safe sex.
> 
> Also there are hints of some stuff happening to Shiro while he was a prisoner that will likely be dealt with in the future as well. I'm not sure yet at what point I'm going to split off and start a new series with this. Probably after Lance loses his V-card too. Then I'll start an entirely new series that begins to start digging a little deeper into poly relationships, other plotty stuff, and various kinks for which I may possibly take requests if they intrigue me enough, though the spirits know I have a long enough list of my own, sheesh.
> 
> To find out more, check out my central Tumblr, charis2770. This one leads you to all my others ones, my fics, and other info about me and my mission to spread safe and healthy BDSM throughout the galaxy. Yay.

Shiro laughed again at Keith’s somewhat reckless comment, accompanied as it was by a smile that managed to be shy and cheeky at the same time. Oh, how their innocence appealed to him, combined as it was with their desire, now that they weren’t trying to hide it or be embarrassed by it anymore. Deep inside him, the part he kept carefully locked away rubbed its hands together in dark anticipation and thought what fun it would be to prove to Keith how wrong he could be.  _ That _ was a part of Shiro he would never allow to touch these two boys. Not now that they were truly to be his to protect, even from himself.  _ That _ part of him  _ could _ harm them in ways they wouldn’t like, but he didn’t think he’d have any trouble keeping it in check. The actual monster the Druids had managed to draw out of him, an entirely separate personality that actually revelled in the blood and pain it dealt out on the battlefield only ever showed itself when Shiro’s life...or the life of someone he loved...was in truly serious danger, hanging by a thread. He wasn’t going to let his fear of it and revulsion toward it ruin their chance at happiness. And if Keith’s eyes could sparkle at the thought of being “punished” intensely enough that it would actually hurt, that he’d actually cry, then it meant it was okay with Keith for Shiro to find the idea of doing it to him appealing as well. It wasn’t about darkness at all. It was about trust. 

 

“Lance?” he asked casually, tightening his arms around Keith so that the smaller paladin wouldn’t be able to escape (not the he expected him to want to).

 

“Hm...what?” Lance, who had been watching them grinding against each other in fascination, startled a little at being addressed.

 

“I need you to do two things for me, please.”

 

“Um. Sure?”

 

“First, would you reach over to my top dresser drawer there and grab the bottle of that herbal stuff Coran gave all of us for sore muscles and minor injuries and stuff?” As he spoke, Shiro gently but firmly wrestled Keith’s arms behind his back and then clasped them both firmly in one hand. His wrists were so slender that it was easy for one of Shiro’s hands to encircle them both. Keith laughed breathlessly and struggled a little, but not in earnest. Shiro narrowed his eyes in warning and used his free hand to slap him sharply on his squirming ass. Keith gasped and squirmed harder. 

 

Lance leaned out over the edge of the bed and worked open the top drawer of the small dresser, groping around inside it until he found the small bottle of alien slave Coran had given to all of them. Shiro didn’t know what the stuff contained, but it worked wonders on tight, aching muscles, helped bruises and small cuts heal faster, didn’t burn or sting said small cuts and, most importantly, it was pretty damn slippery. He hoped it was going to suffice, because none of the others had had time to pack before their hasty departure from Earth and all  _ he’d _ had was the sterile cleansuit the Garrison medical team had replaced his prisoner’s rags with before his new team had rescued him. Such things as lube had been one of the last things on anyone’s minds. Well, considering most of them were hot-blooded teenaged boys in their prime, maybe not the  _ last _ thing, but there certainly hadn’t been time, and he was damned if he was going to stop  _ now _ and go in search of Coran to ask if the ship could provide such a thing. As in, now. Right now. 

 

His inner voice, because it would probably like to jab at him with self-doubt and painful memories for a long time to come, chose to chime in again.  _ Wonder if Earth vaccinations are proof against alien std’s too? You could have some kind of deadly gift that keeps on giving, couldn’t you? Surely you haven’t forgotten the things they did to you? _ He grit his teeth and shook his head. Concerns like that had been wiped out on Earth a couple of generations ago, and now everyone was vaccinated at birth against all such diseases, along with the standard pneumonia, chickenpox and the few other childhood diseases that hadn’t been completely wiped out worldwide. The ship’s counseling program was surprisingly good, and Shiro was working his way through the things his captors had done to humiliate and torture him, to break him. Aside from that, he’d undergone a very thorough medical exam and he  _ knew _ there was no chance of what the stupid voice was referring to. Whether his vaccinations had protected him or the Galra’s medical science had eradicated disease even more effectively (the likelier scenario, as he couldn’t imagine Zarkon tolerating even the slightest weakness among his soldiers, though he often wondered whether the Galran solution to eradicating disease of all kinds has been more likely to be execution of everyone who contracted any kind of sickness, however it was transmitted).  _ There’s no place for this in our bed, _ he thought at the voice firmly.  _ I’m dealing with you, and with what happened to me, and what I did to survive. And I’m going to beat you by choosing to be happy.  _  The voice faded away, and he smiled as he accepted the bottle from Lance, who was blushing a little as he handed it over, making Shiro feel more confident that it’d prove an effective substitute for what he needed since Lance obviously seemed to know what he planned for it, proving that at least  _ someone _ had already thought to put it to the test 

 

He set the bottle down beside his hip, needing his free hand to gently press Lance down on his back against the bed beside them. 

 

“Second,” he said cheerfully, rolling onto his side before Keith could react and depositing the smaller boy’s warm, enthusiastic body on top of the longer, lankier blue paladin, “hold this.”

 

Lance gaped up at him. Keith writhed a little in an attempt to push himself upright, but Shiro leaned down on one elbow, his lips close to Lance’s ear, hand still locked firmly around Keith’s wrists.

 

“I...what?” said Lance, clearly confused but obviously not unaffected by his abrupt lapful of squirming, stunningly attractive, naked brand-new boyfriend.

 

“That’s right,” said Shiro softly, encouragingly, “I want you to be a very good boy for me and hold on to this as tight as you can until it decides to behave. Then you’re allowed to touch however you want, as long as you don’t make him come. Can you do that for me, baby?”

 

****

 

Lance’s eyes almost rolled back into his skull. Shit, it was  _ just _ like the fantasies he’d been having for years. That voice, full of affection and pride, speaking words of encouragement and praise while telling him what to do with confidence and utter surety. Of course he’d do what Shiro asked. It was sort of embarrassing to realize how far he  _ wanted _ to go for Shiro to think he was good for him. A lot farther than this, when  _ this _ was one of the hottest things he’d ever seen or felt in his life, hot-headed, spitfire Keith in his arms, panting and grinding against him so that their naked, hungry cocks bumped and slid blindly against each other. Setting his jaw against the distracting pleasure (and  _ oh god _ it was distracting), he wrapped his arms around Keith’s slim, sturdy, muscular body and held on tight. Shiro smiled down at him approvingly.

 

“That’s perfect. Just like that. Don’t let go. I’ll deal with him if he doesn’t behave himself, you just hold on tight.” Leaning over Keith’s shoulder, Shiro kissed Lance tenderly, drawing a low, eager whine from the blue paladin’s throat. When Shiro drew back, Keith smirked into Lance’s face and replaced Shiro’s lips with his own, kissing him with filthy, unfair abandon. Oh, he was a sneaky bastard. He rocked his hips slowly against the taller boy, licking into his mouth, sucking lightly on his tongue, tracing his teeth and the roof of his mouth. Lance moaned and kissed back, but he kept his arms clasped tightly. Keith struggled a little, sliding his lips along Lance’s jaw to his throat to nip and suck at his sensitive throat.

 

“Nuh...uh...not nice,: gasped Lance. He felt Keith’s mouth curve into a grin against his neck, then the nip of sharp teeth that made him cry out. Ohh, not fair. Keith was making it awfully hard to concentrate, hard for Lance to stay focused on what Shiro had asked him to do, and more than anything he wanted Shiro to think he’d done a good job. A loud crack echoed through the room. Keith yelped, stiffening in Lance’s arms. His head was dragged back, lips pulled away from Lance’s neck. Able to focus again, Lance looked up and snickered when he saw Shiro’s metal hand fisted in Keith’s hair, his other hand drawn back to strike again.

 

“It’s up to you, little boy,” he purred darkly into Keith’s ear. “You can keep misbehaving and I’ll spank you some more. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

 

“Ngh...ye...yes,” gasped Keith.

 

“ _ Or _ I can fuck you. You don’t get both tonight,” said Shiro cheerfully. Keith pouted. 

 

“You’re a lot meaner than everybody thinks you are,” he muttered. Shiro grinned and nipped him softly on the ear.

 

“Ohh, you have no idea,” he agreed. “Your choice.”

 

“I’ll be good,” mumbled Keith, his cheeks flushing pink. He went lax in Lance’s arms, allowing himself to be restrained, laying his head on Lance’s shoulder with a heavy sigh. “Shiro,” he whispered, “I...I want you so bad.”

 

“Me too,” Shiro whispered back. His eyes were filled with something indescribably tender and possessive as he looked down at Keith, something that sent a small ache stabbing into Lance’s chest for a moment, but then that same gaze was turned on  _ him _ , and Shiro’s smile was just for  _ him _ , and the ache was replaced by a happiness that swelled so that his body didn’t feel like it could contain it all. “You’re doing so good, baby. You don’t have to hold on so tight anymore. If you want to touch him, you can. He’ll behave now, I think. But if you’re not ready for that yet, that’s okay too, and you can just hold him for me. Whatever you’re comfortable with. You’re being really good for me.”

 

“Oh,” gasped Lance, blushing like a damn virgin (which, of course, he was) at Shiro’s praise. He couldn’t do anything but stay frozen just as he was, his arms locked around Keith’s waist, his brain reeling a little from the things Shiro was saying and the way Keith relaxed against him so bonelessly, like he trusted Lance, his head a comfortable weight on his shoulder, Keith’s long, shaggy hair soft against the skin of his neck and chest. Faintly, he heard the snap of the cap of the bottle being opened. There was a pause, then Keith suddenly stiffened in his arms, letting out a sharp cry. His hips ground hard against Lance’s.

 

Eyes widening, Lance lifted his head a little and looked down the long, clean line of Keith’s back to the rounded swell of his ass. Shiro’s hand was pressed firmly against his bare cheeks, a finger buried between them. The powerful muscles of his forearm flexed as he moved his finger inside Keith’s ass. 

 

“ _ Fuck, _ : breathed Lance fervently. Keith nodded wordlessly against his throat, his panting breath hot against the blue paladin’s skin. 

 

“Is it okay?” asked Shiro softly. “I’m not hurting you?” Keith shook his head quickly.

 

“Nnh. Ah...I...u-use at least t-two when I….ngh, Shiro!” Keith’s answer was cut off as Shiro slowly pulled his finger back, curling it downwards as he did so, a look of intense concentration on his face. 

 

“There?” he asked, grinning crookedly. Keith just groaned. Lance knew intellectually what was going on. Knew guys had prostate glands and that it supposedly felt amazing when you were touched there, but as of yet he’d been unable to work up the courage to finger himself when he jerked off. Keith, obviously, had no such reservations, since despite his truncated response, his answer to Shiro’s question had been pretty obvious. His reaction to Shiro’s touch was starting to bring Lance’s reservations to a very swift end. Keith’s whole body shuddered with pleasure, and he could feel the other boy’s erection twitch between their tightly pressed bodies, leaking wetness that made their cocks slide against each other easier. Shit, it felt good. It unfroze his limbs too. He unclasped his hands and ran his fingers slowly up Keith’s back. The skin pebbled in their wake, to Lance’s fascination. Softly, he stroked Keith’s back, ran his fingers through the hair at the back of his neck, then back down over the curve of his ass and down his flank. Keith squirmed gently against him and whimpered softly. Never in his wildest dreams would Lance have imagined that Keith Kogane would like being  _ petted. _ It was literally an agonizing choice; stare at the way Keith arched into his touch and mouthed mindlessly against Lance’s collarbones in apparent bliss or glue his eyes to Shiro as he finally withdrew his finger from the other boy’s ass, opening the bottle again, this time squeezing out some more of the silky substance that smelled vaguely herbal onto two fingers, rubbing them together for a few seconds….He finally settled on darting his gaze back and forth between the two, proud of himself for his multitasking skills as he also managed to remember to keep softly touching Keith everywhere he could reach (and oh wow, when he managed to reach underneath his torso and brush over the tight little buds of his brown nipples, Keith moaned in the sluttiest way Lance had ever heard and it was so hot he knew he was gonna store  _ that _ sound in the spank bank for probably the rest of ever). 

 

Actually, when he thought about it, every single second of every single thing that was happening was going there. He only hoped he’d be able to remember all of it. The way Shiro’s metal hand pressed carefully into Keith’s soft ass, pressing down, pulling him open a little, making Lance wish fleetingly he could see what it looked like at the same time that it shocked and embarrassed him to be thinking such a thing when only  _ yesterday _ he’d honestly believed his attraction to guys and to Shiro and (whether he liked to admit it or not) Keith was just something he’d think about and jerk off to sometimes because sex with actual dudes wasn’t ever going to be a real thing (and he sometimes wondered, especially after the Nyma incident, whether he’d even manage to ever do it with an actual  _ girl _ ), but here he was now with the filthiest and best of his dirty dreams not just within his reach but  _ actually coming true _ . Even if it was Keith who was about to get nailed by Shiro’s monster dick, that was okay, because Lance wasn’t sure he’d be able to take something like that up his actual ass without crying like a baby. 

 

Except the way Keith’s eyes rolled back in his head and he shook and let out a choked, desperate sound when Shiro slowly eased two thick fingers inside him sent Lance another big step across the line on the far side of that fear. It was hard to believe he was actually allowed to touch, but when he buried his fingers in Keith’s hair, something he’d honestly been wondering about doing since the first day he saw the guy, back in the Garrison, the only cadet who dared wear it so long. Lance had hated him a little bit for being so damn good, and for not even noticing Lance, but he still hadn’t been able to help wondering if the other boy’s hair was as soft as it looked, even though he never seemed to give a shit about it or do anything with it while Lance worked hard to take good care of his hair and skin like his older sister had taught him. It was. It slid like silk between his fingers, damp underneath where Keith had started to sweat with the heat of the desire building in him as Shiro slowly prepped him. But Keith didn’t protest or disappear when Lance tugged his head up and kissed him, wet and messy, and Shiro only smiled down at them with an expression that couldn’t be described as anything but pride and approval. This wasn’t a dream. No matter how perfectly it mimicked a lot of the ones he’d had for the last few months, this was real.

 

****

 

Keith knew on some level that the sounds he was making into Lance’s mouth were probably really lame, and that he should be embarrassed about them, should try to collect himself at least a little and recover at least a fragment of his cool factor while any wisp of it remained, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Everything felt too good. Almost overwhelmingly good, although he did retain enough of his sense of self to swear to himself that if Lance started making fun of him right now he  _ would _ bite right the fuck through the asshole’s lip, even as he sucked on it and Lance tugged on his hair  _ almost _ hard enough to feel perfect. Lance didn’t say anything stupid though. The hand in Keith’s hair was pretty damn good, and the other one, stroking sweetly up and down his spine….it was weird as hell, but it made him feel sort of safe and grounded even as Shiro’s fingers slid into him, so much thicker than his own. It felt amazing, being slowly stretched open for Shiro to claim him the way he’d been longing for him to do for so damn long it seemed like the ache of it had been a part of him forever, just like the ache of loneliness and never quite belonging anywhere ever since his parents died, and when Shiro’s fingertips brushed his prostate he saw  _ stars _ it was so good, but it was a really vulnerable feeling too. So even if it was a little lame, Lance holding him and touching him made it better, which was kind of a kick in the pants, but damn if it didn’t. 

 

He could feel the place on his ass where Shiro had most recetly smacled him throbbing in time with his heartbeat. Realizing that maybe Shiro really  _ could _ give him some of the stuff he’d always imagined made him dizzy with want. There had always even been part of him that had imagined Shiro being rough with him his first time. Pinning him down and just...fucking  _ taking _ him. But now that two of Shiro’s fingers were slowly pushing inside him, up to the knuckles, and he realized how much bigger just two of Shiro’s  _ fingers _ were than his own, plus he’d seen the guy’s actual dick up close and personal, that fantasy had flown out the window pretty fast. Keith was a little jittery with nerves, though no less positive that he wanted to be with Shiro than he had been before. Wanted to be with both of them, with a ferocity that surprised him. His brain fuzzed out into white when Shiro’s fingers filled him completely and then curled again, their tips rubbing softly against his sweet spot. He moaned brokenly into Lance’s mouth, rocking his hips back into the touch. Shiro chuckled softly, a little breathlessly, almost as if he was surprised by Keith’s reaction.

 

“Feels good, babe?” he asked, his deep voice a low rumble as he leaned down to plant a quick kiss on Keith’s hip. “You gotta keep telling me, showing me...also if I hurt you, okay? I read some stuff when I started realizing I was probably into guys as much as girls, That’s how I knew what to look for. Inside you? That feels good when I do _this_.” He smirked and rubbed his fingertips a little harder over Keith’s prostate, drawing another helpless cry from the red paladin as he writhed against Lance, almost sobbing.

 

“Stuh-stop it, Shiro, stop,” panted Keith, shuddering. “Gonna come.”

 

“You’re so sensitive,” murmured Shiro. “It was really easy to find too. The books seemed to imply it’d take some searching around….”

 

“Shiro…” Lance’s voice pierced the fog of blinding, mind-numbing pleasure taking over Keith’s brain, but to his immense approval, the slow, gentle touching of his hands did not stop, “are you trying to say that  _ you _ haven’t done this either?”

 

“I have with girls,” said Shiro a little awkwardly. His fingers stopped moving, which made Keith growl. He couldn’t see Shiro’s face from his position, and when he looked back on it later, that was probably a good thing. “But aside from some stuff during my time with the Galra that we’re  _ not _ gonna talk about right now but that you guys do have a right to know about...well, no. This is my first time doing things this way with a guy, and...it’s just  _ really _ important to me that I don’t hurt you guys. That way. Okay? So I need you both to promise that you’ll speak up. I’ll take as much time as you need, promise. Yeah?”

 

“ _ Shiro… _ ”

 

Keith could hear something horrified and awful in Lance’s voice that he knew was going to make him want to storm a Galra prison vessel all by himself later and personally slaughter every single guard on board, but Shiro had known him for a long time, and just as he tried to lift his head to focus on Lance’s face, Shiro twisted his fingers a little, grinding them against his sweet spot and then slowly spreading them apart as he leaned down to press an open-mouthed kiss to the back of Keith’s neck. All that came out of his mouth was a helpless mewl at the tight, hot stab of lust followed by the breathless stretch. He whimpered. Lance smoothed his hands over Keith’s back and kissed him some more. 

 

“Shiro, another,” panted Keith after a couple more minutes of the black paladin scissoring two fingers inside him, until the small sting from that stretch was gone and his body only burned for more. Besides, by then Lance had worked a hand between them and was pinching and rolling his nipples between his fingers, one after the other, while he sucked red marks into Keith’s neck and collar bones, and it seemed like every time Shiro relaxed his spreading fingers, their tips brushed that magical place inside him and it was driving him absolutely insane to the point that if the man didn’t hurry things the fuck up he really was in serious danger of just coming all over Lance’s stomach.

 

“Lance, sweetheart?” 

 

“Huh?” Lance dragged his fascinated gaze up from Keith’s face to meet Shiro’s serious, concerned one.

 

“How’s he doing,  _ really _ ?”

 

“I’m pretty sure he means it,” said Lance, pausing in petting along Keith’s spine to grab him by the waist and roll their hips together, which drug a low, ragged groan from the smaller boy. His voice didn’t sound smug or mocking in any way, rather he seemed almost awed at the way Keith was so helplessly responsive between them. “God, Shiro, he’s so hard, and so  _ wet _ , I mean like I’m pretty sure he’s serious that he’s gonna come just from what you’re doing if you’re not careful. Shit, I didn’t even know that was a  _ thing. _ ”

 

“Hm,” said Shiro thoughtfully as he reached for the bottle again. “I don’t think it is, for most guys, but I  _ have _ heard of it, and everybody’s different. Guess this bad little kitty’s just really responsive, huh? That right, pretty little punk?” he growled low into Keith’s ear. Keith shivered. Shiro’s voice felt like a caress all along his burning skin.

 

“Shiro  _ please _ ,” he gasped. Shiro smiled against his skin and squeezed out  _ more _ of the impromptu lube (which was doing a damned good job, really...actually, Shiro’s fingers were so slick Keith could feel it sliding down the crack of his ass and over his balls and it should have been squishy and gross but it wasn’t. Just as carefully as he had from the beginning, Shiro added a third finger. Keith’s teeth dug into his bottom lip. He wrapped his arms around Lance, hiding his face in the other boy’s neck with a soft whine, writhing against him and trying to remember how to breathe. 

 

“Easy,” said Shiro softly, rubbing gentle circles on his thigh with his prosthetic hand. 

 

“No, it’s....I’m good,” gulped Keith. “Don’t...nh...don’t stop.”

 

Shiro didn’t stop. Because he’d been working on spreading his two fingers apart for several minutes, when he buried three inside Keith with an obscene, soft squelching sound, it didn’t hurt. It was more full than Keith had ever felt, and with Shiro behind him, leaning over him, the firm planes of muscle of his thighs and abdomen pressed against him, he could almost imagine Shiro was already inside him, claiming his body the way he’d been dreaming of Shiro doing for so long. Keith was a fighter. As long as he could remember, he’d been fighting against  _ something. _ The system that wanted to swallow him up and turn him into nothing more than another case humber. The asshole foster families who treated him like he was less than human just because he’d had the nerve to become an orphan and a thorn in their sides. The instructors who demanded that he follow rules that didn’t make sense without being able to give him logical reasons why he should. The Garrison officers when they expected him to accept their transparent lies about pilot error and the death of the only person who had mattered to him in too many years to count, even when that damning video had been discovered of an empty and clearly  _ unharmed _ ship floating in orbit around Kerberos. The soldiers who ordered them to stop when he and those other three weird kids stole Shiro out of that hastily erected installation out in the desert around the crash site, being shot at by their  _ own side _ as they fled into the night. The Galra, this new and mysterious enemy he’d never even known they  _ had _ until the lion he’d been dreaming about out in the desert had flown them all into space and through a wormhole and into the middle of a 10,000 year old war (the weird part about it was that  _ this _ part of the things he fought made the most sense to him despite being the least believable, partly because Shiro said it was right, that these were the ones who had captured him and who would conquer and enslave everyone in every galaxy if someone didn’t stand up and do something about it and partly because his bond with his lion told him it was right). Mostly Keith had been fighting against himself; who he was and what he wanted and what it would mean if he admitted it to himself. 

 

But here, now, Keith couldn’t think of a single reason to fight anymore. Or rather, it felt like everything he’d been fighting  _ for _ came down to these moments, this reality, these arms around him, these hands touching him, and he knew….he finally  _ knew _ what he’d been fighting for all that time. It had been like he’d been kicking and biting and scratching and punching to fight his way home, and this….this was what home felt like. His body and mind submitted to Shiro on an instinctive level as if he’d been made for it. He couldn’t explain why Lance being here too didn’t make him feel angry and jealous, but the part of his instincts that recognized Shiro seemed to recognize Lance as Shiro’s too, and that meant they belonged together.

 

Shiro’s fingers flexed slowly inside him, opening him wider, their tips rubbing and pressing against his inner walls while the thick, powerful length of those fingers that had always been so able to calm Keith’s rage with just a touch stretched his entrance. It burned a little, for the first time, but the small pain sang in Keith’s blood, because he knew Shiro would never  _ truly _ hurt him. Not like the first foster father he’d had, the one who’d looked at him with eyes that had shone with a flat, hard shine like a shark’s and who’d come into his room at night and had punched the tiny, eight year old boy in the stomach when Keith had bitten him rather than cower and submit to his own violation, then tossed him back into the system the next morning calling him a discipline problem. Keith hadn’t known the words then for what the man had tried to do. He’d learned the words later, because that man hadn’t been the first one who’d chosen the slight, pretty, half-Korean boy with the long eyelashes and the violet-blue eyes as a foster son out of something other than altruism. But Keith’s refusal to be cowed by the endless, mindless, impersonal and uncaring grind of the beast of a system that swallowed so many others had given him the will to fight them, over and over. As the small sting faded to more pleasure, he thought he’d been fighting to save himself for  _ this _ , whether it sounded cheesy as fuck or not. 

 

****

 

Shiro had never been quite able to put into words what it was about Keith that had drawn him so strongly to the younger boy. As a newly-made officer, he shouldn’t have been. Keith had been everything Shiro had been taught to disapprove of by the lessons that had earned him his stripes, gained him his place on the upcoming mission to Kerberos. Sure, he’d told himself he’d recognized a little of his own instinctive talent in the young pilot, but that had been a mere platitude, something he’d given his brain as an excuse for the heat that burned between them when he met the younger cadet’s eyes in the introductory flight course Shiro had been the TA for during his final semester before graduation. Keith was a rebel. Shiro had played by the rules his whole life. Keith was impetuous, instinctive, and lacked control. Shiro was patient and even-tempered. And yet….

 

And yet, try as he might, those eyes, burning with defiance and passion called to him in dreams he couldn’t avoid even as he schooled his thoughts during the days, focusing on the last of his studies and his preparations for the upcoming mission. Dreams that woke him sweating, his heart pounding, body roused in ways he’d never felt before. He’d refused to give in to those feelings, even though he’d been able to see in Keith’s eyes that the cadet would have been more than receptive. Still, he’d done what he could, spending some of his few precious spare hours running through flight sims after class hours, sharing tips and strategies with Keith that he hoped would help get the fiery cadet through the upcoming year while Shiro was gone. He supposed, in retrospect, that he’d had some vague thoughts of allowing himself to see if there was something there, once he came home. Of course, that had been before the Galra had attacked and taken he and the Holts as their prisoners, changing him forever. Being reunited with Keith had seemed like something out of a dream at first. Shiro had almost told the young man how it had been thoughts of him that had helped to keep him human, during all of those long, endless, cold days and nights. He’d stopped himself though, because he’d listened to the voice that had told him that he  _ wasn’t _ human enough. But he’d finally begun to realize that the voice, like the Galra and their pet Druids, liked to lie. 

 

_ Everything _ he’d ever seen in Keith was still there, and more. All the fire and heat and wildness Shiro had come to learn he had in himself but had been taught his whole life to smother called to him in Keith. In the same way, all the compassion and patience and control that made him a good leader called to him in Lance. He could see now that the two weren’t mutually exclusive, and that somehow, miraculously, despite what he’d done, he could have both,  _ be _ both to each of them. 

 

There was something about the way Keith’s body responded to his fingers, stretching him open, stroking the velvety-soft heat of his insides that seemed sort of startling, but then again, he’d never done this before, so maybe it wasn’t really as surprising as it seemed. Or maybe Keith was just an amazingly responsive person. Or a really dirty boy who’d gotten used to getting himself off by shoving things up his own ass as well as jerking off, because it didn’t take very long before he was taking three of Shiro’s fingers easy and begging for more. It was like nothing he’d ever felt before. The unbelievable tightness clenching right below his knuckles, then the exquisitely soft heat surrounding his fingers, like Keith’s body was melting because of his touch. And when he curled his fingertips down towards the squirming, moaning boy’s navel, rubbing over the small bump nestled under the silky softness of his inner flesh (Shiro had read in his anatomy course that the prostate gland was around the size of a walnut, but probably that was just an approximation, right? There was bound to be variance from person to person), the red paladin  _ shivered _ all over and let out low, broken sounds almost like he was sobbing with need for Shiro to  _ take _ him. The problem with those anatomy books was that they hadn’t been very informative on how long you had to work on stretching a guy’s ass so you wouldn’t do any damage to him when you put your dick inside him. And despite one mind-blowingly good earlier blowjob, Shiro’s dick was aching to replace his fingers. Speaking of which…

 

“Shiro….Shiro,  _ please _ ,” said Keith in a low, ragged voice. His hands were clenched tightly around Lance’s shoulders, his whole body trembling and covered with a fine sheen of sweat that made his fine skin seem to glow in the low light of the room. His long hair stuck to the back of his neck. Lance carded his fingers gently through the damp strands of the other boy’s hair and kissed him between Keith’s wanton noises. Keith responded eagerly, but seemed to be too far gone to do much more than press his open mouth against Lance’s and moan hungrily, so that their lips and chins were wet. 

 

“I, um...think he’s ready,” whispered Lance, and Keith just nodded frantically. Shiro felt his heart begin to hammer in his chest so hard it made his ribs ache. None of the few girls he’d been with had ever made him feel this way, not even the first time. Nothing he’d done in his whole life had ever compared to this combination of terror and excitement and tenderness and need. He wanted to touch Keith as though he was made of glass at the same time he wanted to stake his claim into the other paladin’s flesh so deeply Keith would scream his name. His hands shook as he reached for the bottle yet again, picking it up and popping open the cap. He fumbled it a little as he squeezed some out into his hand to smooth it over the length of his cock, and ended up with quite a bit more than he’d intended. Oh well. That was probably all right. Better to have too much than not enough, right? It dripped down his dick and over his balls, leaving his fingers slick and wet and making a filthy sound when he squeezed them around himself. His eyes fell closed and he grit his teeth, groaning softly through them. 

 

Keith keened low in his throat, lifting his hips up on shaking legs. Something snarky he’d said earlier occurred to Shiro and he grinned crookedly as he wrapped his metal hand around one of the mindless boy’s hips. Lance’s mouth dropped open in dismay and his hands opened and closed a bit forlornly when he suddenly found his arms empty, his skin pebbling with goosebumps at the sudden cold caused by the loss of Keith’s heat when Shiro dragged him down the bed and off the lanky blue paladin’s body.

 

“Shiro,” he cried in confusion, “wha…”

 

“I think I heard you make a promise earlier with that smart mouth of yours, little punk,” he purred at Keith, pressing his shoulders down as he pulled his hips back and up. Keith groaned and shook his head, trying to clear it. He opened blurred eyes to see Lance displayed in front of him, his long legs splayed out on either side of him. Shiro grinned to see that the taller boy’s cock was still just as achingly hard as it had been when the two of them had been kissing over him, what seemed like hours ago now….and maybe it had been. His prosthetic fingers dug gently into one cheek of Keith’s ass, pulling him open a little, his other hand wrapping around his own erection with a sticky, obscene sound. Keith’s wet, stretched hole winked and flinched between his reddened cheeks.  _ Oh god. _

 

“Hngh?” said Keith. Lance echoed the sentiment.

 

“Put your mouth on him,” rasped Shiro is a low, bass growl from deep in his chest as he softly nestled the head of his cock against the hot, softened entrance to Keith’s body, “and suck.”

 

“Mmhm,” moaned Keith, lunging forward in a rather uncoordinated move which nevertheless managed to spear Lance’s cock with his slack, open mouth. Lance’s head fell back against the pillows with a whimper. Shiro wrapped his other hand around Keith’s hip as well and sucked in a great gulp of air.  _ Please don’t let me fuck this up, _ he thought.

 

_ You will, _ said the voice in its nasty, silky surety. He shook his head and frowned.

 

 _I wasn’t talking to_ ** _you_** **,** he thought at it, and let it go, focusing all his attention on Keith. Just in time to tighten his grip and prevent the younger boy from shoving his hips backwards and impaling himself, as much as that appealed to some part of him. 

 

“Hey, easy, I…,” Shiro swallowed. “I don’t want to hurt you. Well, not like this. You just pay attention to what you’re supposed to be doing and let me drive, yeah?”

 

Keith made a muffled sound around Lance’s cock, pulling off with a filthy slurp, some of his brain’s function apparently having been returned by the absence of direct stimulation. To a point, at least. His voice was ragged and breathless, but some of his natural personality crept back in when he spoke.

 

“Ngh. Fuck, Shiro….drive faster….”

 

Shiro couldn’t help it. Everything that had happened today had been intense and amazing and wonderful, basically everything he’d never dared to hope for landing in his lap all in a series of one incredible moment after another, and it was practically overwhelming, but it was just such a perfectly Keith thing to say. He laughed.

 

“I can tell you’re gonna be a handful,” said Shiro, still chuckling. “But it’s perfect. Lance?”

 

“Uh...huh?” Lance unglued his eyes from Keith’s face, where he was leaning with his cheek rubbing against Lance’s shining wet cock.

 

“Help me out a little here.?”

 

“Oh...I...I don’t….what am I supposed to?”

 

“If I had to guess, I’d say grabbing him by the hair and shoving his mouth back down on your dick where I told him to put it should work pretty well. Trying it without his permission if I’m not around might be a good way to get bitten I suppose. That’s between you guys to work out, but I’m pretty sure this was  _ his _ idea in the first place  _ and _ I gave him an order. You deserve to feel good too, you know. And you did such a good job taking care of him for me earlier. You were so perfect for me, baby. C’mon, haven’t you ever wanted to?”

 

“Oh my god, yes,” breathed Lance, clearly torn between squirming under the fantasy and preening under the praise. Shiro lifted his human hand from Keith’s hip and smacked him gently on his backside. Keith moaned approvingly.

 

“No biting,” warned Shiro sternly. Keith nodded. A little awed, Lance slid his hands back into the silky, damp strands of Keith’s dark hair, tugging his head back a little. Keith’s mouth fell open, his lips slack, red and wet. Lance shuffled his hips a little, hesitantly guiding Keith’s head. Watching them brought back Shiro’s own desire with the sudden pressure of the abrupt takeoff of his lion from a dead standstill to top speed, the G-forces slamming into him hard enough to knock the breath out of his lungs. Tearing his eyes away from the gorgeous spectacle of Keith sucking Lance into his mouth and sliding his lips down the length of him all the way to the root while Lance’s eyes rolled back into his head and a string of fervent curses and stuttered praises spilled from his lips, Shiro turned his attention to the even more compelling sight of Keith’s perfectly rounded, firm ass hugging the head of his cock where it pressed snugly against his entrance. 

 

Slowly, carefully, he leaned a little of his weight into his hips. Keith’s hole spread slowly around him, yielding easily at first, The slick, warm softness felt amazing. Keith let out a deep, raw moan around his mouthful, which drew an answering moan from Lance as the vibrations along his shaft stimulated his throbbing erection. His fingers tightened in Keith’s hair. Then Shiro’s gentle advancement met with resistance, the tight inner muscle of Keith’s hole resisting his forward progress. His hands tightened on the slender hips, holding Keith firmly in place. He set his teeth and leaned a little harder, concentrating hard on keeping up a slow, steady but gentle pressure, encouraging Keith’s body to open for him. Keith whimpered softly at the pressure. Lance’s fingers tightened convulsively in his hair as Keith sucked harder, a small frown of concentration between his brows. He pushed back against Shiro, who wasn’t the only one who’d been doing a little reading. Slowly, as he pushed against Shiro, his body opened a little, and the thick, heavy cock invading him slid in a little deeper. Keith whimpered around Lance’s cock at the aching burn of the stretch. Shiro frowned at the small pain sound, releasing one hand to rub soft circles on Keith’s lower back. Keith gave a tiny shake of his head, sucked harder on Lance and  _ moaned _ , giving a tiny shove backwards with his hips.  _ Oh, it’s  _ **_that_ ** _ kind of pain. _

 

Shiro wanted to take care of them both so badly, the depth of his wish for it so all-encompassing that he was a little surprised by the burst of heat in his gut, the flare of desire as Keith’s reaction made it clear that yeah, it did hurt a little, but he  _ liked  _  it, and didn’t want Shiro to stop. He pressed the palm of his hand into the smaller boy’s back, holding him down, the fingers of his Galra-tech hand clenching tighter around Keith’s hip, pressing small bruises into the soft flesh.

 

“Lance,” he said, his voice the one of quiet, confident command that he used on them during missions. “Fuck his mouth. He’s about to forget how to use it much in a second.”

 

“Y-yes Sir,” gasped Lance, responding so perfectly to the voice without even thinking.

 

“Good boy,” said Shiro approvingly. Lance’s cheeks flushed pink with pleasure. He clenched his hand in Keith’s hair and rocked his hips up into the eager mouth sucking on his aching, dripping cock. A little cocky, Keith swirled his tongue around the head and then rubbed the underside with it, sucking until his cheeks hollowed out, as if trying to prove Shiro wrong. That was until Shiro drew his hips back until just the broad head of his cock caught at the rim of Keith’s hole...and then he rolled his hips forward, sinking his cock slowly but steadily all the way inside the red paladin’s ass until his hips pressed against Keith’s ass. Keith howled brokenly around Lance’s dick and his brain shorted out completely. 

 

****

 

It was almost exactly like one of the dreams he’d had no more than about a week ago. They fucked him at both ends. Lance’s hand in his hair held his head steady, but his other hand stroked Keith’s face and throat gently. His fingers rubbed softly at Keith’s swollen lips where they were connected, and the thrusts of his hips were tentative and careful. Shiro’s hands held him completely immobile, pressing him down and angling his hips just the way he wanted him, just the way Keith had dreamed he would. His cock filled Keith completely, stretching him open so wide it felt like he’d almost burst, so big inside him that it ached and stung, but also so big that it pressed and rubbed against the bundle of nerves inside with every easy roll of Shiro’s hips so that the pain and pleasure blurred into one sensation so perfect it brought tears to his eyes.

 

Shiro had taken a long time to prep him….so long he’d thought he’d explode a long time before the patient bastard got around to actually fucking him...so the pain wasn’t a sharp, ripping sensation, but a deep ache inside him that he’d longed for all his life, and so mixed with brain-numbing pleasure that he couldn’t separate the two. And damn it, Shiro had been right. He couldn’t concentrate on his mouth anymore, so he just opened his jaws and flattened his tongue and let Lance use his mouth however he wanted. He’d messed around with a couple of guys in one of the bigger group homes he’d lived in for several months before entering the Academy, where he’d learned that he had no gag reflex to speak of, so when Lance, trying to be careful not to choke him, tried to keep his thrusts careful and shallow, Keith wrestled his brain into gear enough to pretend to be forced over face-first by one of Shiro’s gentle thrusts (which was a total fake, because Shiro was still being pretty careful) and “accidentally” swallowed Lance to the hilt, swallowing around the head of his dick and moaning to show he was okay. Lance whimpered and cursed in awe, but seemed to get the message. 

 

“Oh fuck, Keith,” panted Lance, “ you... _ shit… _ ”

 

“No gag reflex, huh?” said Shiro, sounding a bit breathless. Lance gulped and shook his head. “Damn. That’s hot. Keith, babe, you’re doing so good,” he crooned softly, stroking sweetly back and forth with the thumb of the hand that was pressed firmly against Keith’s back. Keith let out a broken, muffled whine and wished a little that he could speak so he could beg Shiro to fuck him harder. The tears at the corners of his eyes welled up and rolled down his cheeks. God, it felt so good, but he wanted  _ more. _

 

“Sh...Shiro...I’m not...not gonna last....much longer,” whimpered Lance, thrusting deeper into Keith’s slack, pliant mouth.

 

“Yeah? Ready for me to fuck you then, little boy?” Shiro asked Keith, his voice very low and ragged, rumbling in his chest. With monumental effort of will, Keith tore his mouth off of Lance, laying his forehead on the other boy’s thigh for a moment, panting hard.

 

“ _ Takashi, _ ” he whispered, his voice wrecked, “ _ please! _ ” Shiro swore under his breath. Keith let Lance push his cock back into his mouth. The hands on his back and hip tightened a little more. Shiro pulled back, back, until his cock almost pulled free of Keith’s body. He held himself still for several long moments, then snapped his hips forward with the considerable muscles of his back and hips. Keith shrieked around the dick in his mouth, Lance letting out a stuttered groan at the vibrations of it along his shaft. 

 

It wasn’t like his dreams at all. It was better. Keith’s own fingers and the occasional improvised toy he’d used on himself had always felt unusually good rubbing against his sweet spot, but Shiro’s cock drilling into him over and over while his throat was stuffed full of Lance’s twitching erection completely whited out all his higher brain function. The friction was perfect. The hard slap of Shiro’s hips against his ass was perfect. His insides felt hot and swollen. Shiro’s cock  _ ground _ over him in just the right way. Claiming him. When Shiro’s hand slid softly over his ribcage down down his side, fingers reaching to curl around his cock, Keith shook his head frantically. He didn’t need it. He was going to come without Shiro touching his cock anyway, he could already feel it building, coiling hot and tight around his spine, his balls tightening, and he wanted to enjoy this for as long as he could. Shiro seemed to understand him, as he’d always seemed to. He growled low in his throat in pleasure and withdrew his hand, wrapping it around Keith’s other hip, no longer needing to hold him down to keep him in place.

 

“Gonna...come...on my...cock...huh?” he grunted between thrusts. Keith keened his agreement in his throat and lifted his hips higher. It changed the angle just a little, deepened the contact between Shiro’s driving cock and the place inside him that was made for it. 

 

“Fuck,” whispered Lance fervently, his voice sounding both wrecked and almost reverent, “you’re so pretty. Keith. Ahh...ha, Shio, I’m….please!” And Keith felt Lance’s cock surge in his throat, the slick wetness of his precome increasing, and a part of him longed to beg Shiro’s permission for his own release, just so he could hear those longed-for words, but this was good too. This was perfect, being claimed this way, owned by them both, wanted. He’d never felt so wanted. Not for a night or a moment, but for himself, and for as long as they had. 

 

“Come for us,” growled Shiro, slamming into Keith harder, his hips losing their rhythm, his breath harsh in his chest. Lance’s cry of release was almost a scream, his cock jerking in Keith’s mouth, filling him with surges of thick, salty fluid. He swallowed as best he could, but it was hard to do with his head down, so some ran down his chin. He didn’t care though, couldn’t think about it. Shiro’s words seemed as if they were for both of them, and he wailed as his body tightened, his hole clamping down on Shiro’s cock, wave after wave of bliss washing over him and tearing bursts of sticky seed from his twitching prick. Shiro gasped, fingers tightening. He slammed himself as deeply into Keith’s body as he could get, pulling his hips back holding him tightly against him as the rippling contractions of the younger boy’s climax dragged him along close behind. Keith moaned blissfully at the soft jerking of Shiro’s cock inside him, and the warm rush of his release filling him up inside. 

 

They stayed frozen like that for several long moments, hearts pounding, trembling muscles locking their bodies in place. Then Lance’s fingers loosened in Keith’s hair, softly rubbing at his scalp as the taller boy collapsed back against the pillows, his spent cock slipping from Keith’s mouth. Very slowly and carefully, Shiro pulled out of Keith’s body, his gray eyes worriedly searching for any sign of damage as Keith whimpered. Keith’s used hole was red and swollen, but he saw no blood as his own spend slowly began to seep out and slide down the crack of his ass. Shiro eased Keith forward with gentle hands, nestling him beside Lance before he collapsed beside them, gasping for breath as his pounding heart slowly began to return to normal. Keith buried his face in the pillow and lay still as if he’d been shot. Lance flopped over on his side and slung an arm across his shoulders, leaning down to nuzzle into the back of his neck. Shiro threw his own arm over his motionless lover to wrap his hand around Lance’s arm and pull him a little closer, leaning over Keith to place a kiss on the top of the blue paladin’s tousled head.

 

“Best. Idea. Ever,” Sighed Lance in contentment. “Well, churros with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce is a close second. You guys gotta try that sometime. My abuela makes the best churros  _ ever, _ I mean mmphmgm…”

 

He stopped rambling as Keith found the strength to move somehow, lifted one arm and flopped his hand over to cover Lance’s mouth with it. Shiro chuckled. 

 

“Hey, he lives.”

 

“Lance, I promise, I’ll eat churros with ice cream and caramel sauce off your  _ dick _ the very first time we find a place that can make them, but you need to shut the fuck up,” groaned Keith.

 

“What did I say?”

 

“Nothing. I’m  _ starving, _ and all we have on this ship is space goo,” said Keith, grumpy voice muffled into the pillow.

 

“Not entirely true,” said Shiro, grinning. Keith found the further strength to raise his head and peer at him suspiciously. “Remember that planet we stopped at that had those packaged snack things that tasted a little bit like chocolate?”

 

“Oh  _ man _ ,” sighed Lance nostalgically. “They reminded me a little bit of  _ Caramellos.” _

 

“Yeah, well I saved a few of them for a special occasion,” said Shiro smugly. 

 

“Oh my god,  _ gimme, _ ” said Keith.

 

“I don’t know,” teased Shiro gently, eyes sparkling, “if this qualifies as special enough.”

 

“Oh, it so does,” said Lance eagerly. “I’m not even nervous anymore. That was amazing!”

 

“Then it’s not just special enough,” said Keith, rolling over onto his back with a small wince as his tender ass made contact with the bed. “It’s vital.”

 

“Oh yeah? Why’s that, not that I don’t agree with you,” said Lance.

 

“Well, you’re gonna need your strength,  _ baby _ ,” Keith purred with a lazy smile, looking up at Shiro, who was grinning down at him, having caught on immediately because Shiro always understood him. “Because you’re  _ next. _ ”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro's need for aftercare is discussed. So are several other things. Then it is, indeed, Lance's turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry it took so long to get to this. There's just been a lot going on lately, and my brain hasn't wanted to cooperate. 
> 
> But I'm finally done!! My first Voltron fic, and it makes me pretty happy. I'd sort of like to turn this into a series if there's enough interest, to explore kinks, and possibly take some requests. 
> 
> As always, please practice safe sex. Always discuss stuff with your partner or partners. People are rarely mind-readers, and under-negotiated kink is a minefield nobody should try to navigate. Also, never be afraid to use your safeword if you need to. It's not a failure. A submissive lets their Dom down a lot more by not speaking up than they do by letting them know when they get overwhelmed. And any Dominant who fails to respect a safeword, in my opinion, forfeits the right to call themselves a Dom. Play safe, my dears, and play smart.
> 
> Also, I'd really love to hear what you guys think. Is this worth continuing as a series?

There was a momentary flash of startled panic that chased across Lance’s face, but to Shiro’s immense relief, it was replaced quickly by a flaring of his pupils and an expression of intense interest as his bright blue eyes darted back and forth from Keith to Shiro. Keith grinned smugly. Shiro chose to ignore Keith’s threat. Or statement. Or promise...or whatever the hell it had been. Whatever else did or did not happen tonight was still very much up for debate as far as he was concerned, and even though he spared a moment’s thought to wonder why he wasn’t surprised in the slightest to be absolutely sure that he’d have no problem being up for a round three in relatively short order (because he was pretty damn sure he’d never come three times in one day in his  _ life _ , not even during puberty when his hormones had been  lot more out of control or even when he’d had his first girlfriend with whom he’d been intimate), he was equally sure that  _ nothing _ like that was going to happen unless he was absolutely sure that  _ Lance _ was sure it was what he wanted. 

 

Besides, he had more pressing concerns at the moment. Rolling out of bed, he walked over to his desk and knelt down, feeling underneath it with his head cocked to the side, reaching for the small hidden button in the back while Keith and Lance watched him with great interest. He grinned over his shoulder as he heard the click, then pulled open the bottom drawer. Without the button he’d just pushed being depressed, it was an ordinary drawer, but since he’d triggered the mechanism…

 

He reached inside and pulled out the several books and files he kept there, then lifted out the false bottom. Setting it aside, he reached in again, withdrawing the alien candy he’d promised, along with an assortment of other weird non-perishable snack foods they’d discovered in their travels. All the other paladins, Hunk and Lance especially, immediately wolfed down every bit of their shares of anything actually tasty that Team Voltron happened to have the right currency for, or something desirable to the alien race with which to barter, any time they stopped on an inhabited planet with some kind of free market system because they needed some kind of supplies or part or information. There was rarely enough of either commodity for anybody to really stock up. Altean currency, although Allura had plenty of it, was worthless. When no banks any longer exist with which to exchange a foreign currency, said currency’s value is going to drop pretty quickly. And Altea had been destroyed 10,000 years ago.

 

And yet, Allura always somehow managed to make sure that there was enough of whatever the going rate was when they stopped on a planet for some kind of information gathering or trade or shopping expedition where she even suspected there might be some kind of food her Paladins would like, especially if she thought it might remind them of Earth, to see to it that each of them got to grab a quick lunch or a snack. Coran didn’t understand it. To him the protein slime made of space algae was not only perfectly acceptable, it was tasty in all its variations. Of course, the man also liked his vile Nunville, so all of the paladins regarded his opinions when it came to food with deep suspicion. So although the shopping expeditions were rare, every single one of them had developed a strategy of fanning out through whatever marketplace or space mall (depending on the tech level of the planet), each finding a sample of one thing they thought was actually tasty, then meeting back at a scheduled rendezvous place and time to share out so that everyone could sample and decide what suited them best. At that point, the meager pocket change or trinkets Allura somehow never failed to provide were divvied out and everyone got their share of whatever they liked the best. Lance and Hunk would devour every bit of their treats right away. Hunk would whine defensively that he knew he ought to save some to savor later, but whenever he found something that actually tasted good, he had no self control. He was brilliant and ruthless when rationing out kitchen provisions on the rare occasions when they took on fresh food, but when it came to snacks he was weak. Lance was the same, especially with foods that reminded him even remotely of home, and his imagination was pretty astonishingly flexible when it came to that. Pidge and Keith were a bit more conservative, and could make their snacks last for a few days if they had enough coin for more than a single serving, but even they gave into temptation when almost every day they were faced with the same, repetitive, bland space goo.

 

But even Keith, who had known plenty of times in his life of neglect, and abuse, and feeling hungrier than any child had any business feeling, had never known what  _ real _ hunger felt like. For the most part, the Galra had kept their Champion well-nourished. Shiro still had some major gaps in his memory, but he could recall periods of cramping, gnawing hunger in his gut in the beginning when he’d resisted what they wanted of him. Only one of their many methods used to break him. He also remembered bits and pieces, mere images really, of the hollow-eyed looks on the other prisoners’ faces as he was brought heaping platefuls of food while they were barely given enough scraps to survive on. He’d taken to saving what he could, both to share when he got the chance, and to build up his strength for when he was ready to run, or in case they decided to stop feeding him again. It had become a hard habit to break. 

 

Not that he didn’t enjoy the interesting and widely varied treats when they got them. He did. He just never allowed himself to eat  _ all _ of his, but tucked it away along with a few other precious things and other items he wasn’t ready to share with anyone yet, in the hidden compartment under the false bottom of his desk drawer. He hadn’t known what he’d been saving the snacks up for...until now. 

 

“Shiro, my dude,” whispered Lance, trying to look excited and scandalised at the same time and very nearly pulling it off, “why do you have a secret food stash in a hidden drawer in your desk? You...you know food hoarding’s not really….a good thing, right?”

 

Shiro was able to laugh, and for the first time, without bitterness.

 

“Eh...there was a little bit of that to it at first. It was just a habit. But later I started thinking I might want to save this stuff for a special occasion, and if I didn’t have a  _ really _ good hiding place for it, Hunk  _ would _ find it. And now I’m glad I did. You...you know how you guys said it was okay for me to want things too?”

 

They both nodded, looking a little puzzled, since he was the one proposing to give  _ them _ candy. He set his small pile of offerings down on the bed and have them a stern look.

 

“No touching until I come back. Understood?”

 

“Yes, Shiro,” said Keith softly, while Lance just nodded, staring at the alien candy and drooling a little. Shiro snagged a pair of jogging pants out of one of his drawers and slipped them on, then let himself out of the room, making his way on light feet despite his muscular frame to the kitchen, where he snagged a pitcher and some glasses out of the cupboard and filled the elegant, pale green glass(ish) vessel with more of the fruit juice he’d enjoyed with Allura earlier. On his way back to his room, he detoured by the bathroom and picked up a couple of hand towels, wetting them with warm water. Then, prepared, he hurried back to his room, wondering to himself if he’d find that he’d been obeyed or two guilty faces smeared with a reasonable facsimile of chocolate.

 

He was at least reasonably pleased to find that they’d  _ mostly _ obeyed him. None of the snacks had been consumed, or even opened, but Lance was crouching over the small treasure hoard with hungry eyes and an excited grin on his face as he excitedly recounted for Keith where all of the small packages, boxes and foil-wrapped treats had come from while Keith curled his body around one of Shiro’s pillows and pretended not to be interested, even though his eyes were glued to the food.

 

“Ooh, and _this_ one….remember these? We got them on that big jungle planet with the _huuuge_ market where all the natives came to trade their stuff once a week? Whoever thought dried purple flowers could taste just like popcorn! Oh, Oh! And this one, oh I love this one! They really do look like fried bugs don’t they? The lady who was making them promised they weren’t, and then they tasted sooo much like those little rice cracker things...y’know, I wonder if she lied? They sure do look like they’ve got legs…”

 

“Who cares what they look like if they taste good,” said Keith carelessly, rolling his eyes. “It’s not like we haven’t eaten worse, even if they are bugs.”

 

“Just never say that to Hunk. It was like, over a month ago, but he’d still probably hurl. Ohmygod, this one was my  _ favorite _ ! They taste just like fried chicharrones. Oh man, I can hardly...Sh-Shiro. Hi. Um. I wasn’t touching, I promise!” Lance’s voice rose to a squeak of alarm and he scrambled back on the bed to perch next to Keith. Shiro frowned to himself at the sound of fear in the blue paladin’s voice, but when he sat on the edge of the bed, both of the younger pilots moved closer to him easily, and he quickly translated the look of worry on Lance’s face as about being denied his treat rather than fear of Shiro. His shoulders relaxed and he smiled, leaning down to brush a kiss over Lance’s mouth. Lance sighed into it and leaned against him. 

 

“I believe you,” he said softly. “And I didn’t say you couldn’t look. It’s okay, Lance. Don’t look so worried, yeah? You were good. You both were.” 

 

Lance’s small, ill-disguised wriggle of happiness didn’t come as much of a surprise. Even after so short a time, it was blatantly apparent to Shiro that approval and compliments were just about the biggest key to Lance’s sensitive heart. It was obvious to everyone on the team that the blue paladin was desperate for validation; that all his bragging and showing off and big talk were pretty poor masks for some massive insecurities. He hoped he’d be able to get to the bottom of them, and maybe even be able to help a little. After all, the blue lion had chosen the young man as her paladin, and that was no small thing. What did surprise him a little was the faint dusting of pink that bloomed across Keith’s cheeks. Keith looked away, muttering under his breath.

 

“It’s not like I did anything but sit here.”

 

“Maybe not,” said Shiro easily, “but you did what I asked you to, and you didn’t have to….guys, you  _ never _ have to unless you’re okay with what I ask of you, okay? But it made me happy. So anyway, we were talking about things I want, and this,” he gestured to the pile of treats, the tray he’d set down on the desk near his bed, and lifted the towels he held in his Galra hand, “is all part of one of those things. I’m pretty sure there are gonna be a lot of them, and a lot of them will be a lot more perverted than this is, but this one...it might be one of the hardest ones for you. But it’s one of the most important ones to me.”

 

Lance looked merely curious, but Shiro could see the unease slide into Keith’s eyes, knowing as that dark gaze darted back and forth between the collection of things Shiro had gathered that Keith was probably putting two and two together already. They’d known each other before, after all, and Keith knew Shiro better than all the rest of them.

 

“Shiro…,” he said uncomfortably.

 

“Look, I know that nothing really heavy happened tonight. And probably that’ll be true a lot of the time. But if you two are really willing to...to give this a shot...and to let me….to trust me with the kind of control we talked about, then it’s my job to make sure you’re okay. All the time, of course, but  _ after _ is the most important.”

 

“Yeah, but we’re  _ fine, _ ” said Keith, pressing his back against the wall, starting to look a little cornered.

 

“I know you are. I know it’s probably not going to be something either one of you really  _ need _ all that often. You’re paladins of Voltron. You go through stuff a lot more intense and painful and terrifying than anything we’re  _ ever _ going to do together in the privacy of this room. I don’t want you to think it’s because I think you need to be babied or anything like that.”

 

“Nah, totally,” said Lance with a small toss of his head, puffing out his chest just a little. “Shiro, we’re not  _ kids _ . We can take care of ourselves, because...well, I won’t speak for Keith or anything, but I’m totally chill, my dude.”

 

Shiro managed not to smile at this predictable response.

 

“I’m not trying to suggest you’re not. Either of you. This is about me.  _ I _ need this, so I’m just going to ask you to let me do this, even if you have to just grin and bear it. I need you to understand that this whole thing is a little more complicated for me. It’s  _ not _ that I don’t want this. I liked everything we’ve done so far tonight. A lot. And it only brushes the surface of the things I think I’d like just as much.” He made sure to look Keith in the eye when he said the last part, gratified to see the younger boy bite his lip and take a short, hitched breath. “But I hurt you both, a little. And when we start to actually explore the things both of you….no, all three of us want to try, some of those things will hurt more. I’m going to do my best to make sure it’s never in a bad way, or more than you want. I’m the one who’s going to have to come to terms with wanting those things, and liking them...and...trying not to let it get mixed up in the mess in my head over the things I did while the Galra had me. I  _ know _ it’s completely different, but this...taking care of you a little afterwards, whether you really need me to or not? That’s part of what’s going to let me be okay with all of it, and with myself. Do you think you can…”

 

Lance interrupted him suddenly, flinging himself onto his back on the bed theatrically and making Shiro laugh in the middle of his awkward explanation.

 

“Say no more,” he cried dramatically. “Coddle me, Shiro! I demand it!”

 

Keith snorted with laughter, but his eyes on Shiro went soft with understanding. The nervous tension drained from his body as he slid down beside Lance.

 

“Yeah, okay,” he said softly. “Everybody gets to have needs, even Doms.”

 

“Keith…”

 

“Look,” muttered Keith, not making eye contact, but that was something Shiro was used to because Keith always did that when something made him feel awkward. “Letting you...it isn’t hard because of some ego bullshit or because I don’t want you to. It’s just hard to  _ let _ anybody because I’m not used to it. It’s just...just too many years of having to take care of myself whenever I was hurt or scared or lonely or sad or whatever the fuck because nobody else  _ would _ , or ever wanted to, and I got used to it.”

 

“I know,” said Shiro softly, reaching up to tuck a stray lock of hair behind Keith’s ear, making him blush a little, which Shiro has always thought was unfairly cute.

 

“I...can get used to this too. I think.”

 

“Thank you,” said Shiro solemnly, trying not to smile brilliantly at him but not being entirely successful at it.

 

“But we are  _ not, _ ” said Keith threateningly, looking at Lance severely, “calling it  _ coddling _ .”

 

“Whatever, dude,” said Lance airily. “I’m just more at zen with my manhood than you are.”

 

Keith whipped one of the damp towels out of Shiro’s hand too fast for him to close his fist around it protectively and smacked it down over Lance’s smugly smiling face, wrenching an outraged and offended squawk out of the taller boy’s mouth. Trying not to laugh, Shiro withdrew the towel gently and painted a stern expression on his face.

 

“There will be no squabbling right now,” he threatened, “or I’ll spank both of you again.” Speculative looks were exchanged which caused to to hastily add, “And there will be no snacks!” 

 

Obviously this was a much more effective threat, and both of his new lovers settled down at once, subsiding comfortably side by side and looking up at him expectantly, waiting to see what he was going to do. Their demeanors changed from acceptance to approval as he gently stroked the warm towels over their smooth skin, cleaning away dried sweat and sticky bodily fluids. Lance moaned blissfully, stretching like a sleepy puppy as the warmth soaked in. Keith seemed to enjoy it too, though his face flushed with embarrassment when Shiro made him turn over so he could attend to his recently well-fucked asshole, carefully cleaning away the come staining his thighs and still leaking sluggishly from his red, puffy entrance.

 

“Are you sore?” asked Shiro softly when Keith groaned with his face buried in the pillow.

 

“No,” came the muffled reply.

 

“Keith….”

 

“A little. I like it. Can you please be done now?” said Keith a little desperately. “This is really embarrassing and you’re sort of turning me on again and if Lance is looking at my ass right now I’m gonna punch him in the dick.”

 

“Aw, but you have such a cute asshole, baby,” said Lance, who was carefully not looking, even though he kind of wanted to. Keith growled.

 

“He’s not looking,” chuckled Shiro, leaning down to place a soft kiss on Keith still slightly reddened ass before relenting and letting him flip back over quickly onto his back, glaring at Lance, who stopped looking politely at the wall and leaned over to kiss him sloppily. Keith shoved at the taller boy for a few minutes before melting into the kiss. It occurred to Shiro that he might not be the only one in this new relationship who was touch starved. Maybe they all were, in their own ways. Lance came from a big family, and the way he talked about them led Shiro to believe that they were all very generous with their displays of affection so that Lance was used to a lot of hugging and piles of kids in front of the television watching movies and wrestling with his siblings and giving piggy-back rides to his little cousins because he was the tallest, and also the oldest boy. Keith, on the other hand, had never known physical affection of any kind since he’d lost his parents, of whom he had next to no memory. No one had picked him up and hugged him when he cried. No one had tucked him in bed at night with hugs and kisses. No one had loved him enough to keep him around even though he was a difficult child to get to know. The boy had matured into a young man who generally rejected physical displays, but Shiro knew that was because it just hurt too much to be pushed away. And until tonight, he hadn’t really even considered that he himself might be even more starved for touch than both of them, after so many lonely months in cold, dark cells where the only time anyone touched him was when they were trying to kill him, or torturing him with their experiments and trying to break him. The reasons didn’t matter, he supposed. Being able to touch and be touched in return was something they all needed, and just one more thing that could help bring them closer together. 

 

He poured glasses of the fresh, fruity juice for all three of them, handing them out, and then leaned down to the foot of the bed, scooped an arm around his small pile of carefully saved treats and dragged it all up towards the head of the bed. Then he wedged himself in between them and smiled, sighing with contentment. 

 

“Dig in,” he offered. Lance whooped and scooped up several things at once, tearing into packaging with his teeth, then munching away happily, his eyes closing in bliss. Keith was a little more reserved, but ripped open one of the almost-chocolate bars with gusto, sighing happily.

 

“Aren’t you gonna eat too, Shiro?” asked Lance around a mouth full of alien protein bar. At least, Shiro was reasonably certain those were the words, muffled as they were by the other boy’s mouthful of food. He shook his head and smiled.

 

“I’m fine. You guys go ahead.” It was far more enjoyable for him to watch them enjoying themselves anyway. This, however, was not to be.

 

“Shiro,” said Keith solemnly, “it’s just as important for you to restore your blood sugar levels and restore lost energy as it is for us. Spankings and stuff, well, any kinda scene like that is a lot like training, really intensive training...or even a little like a battle. You know how you sometimes get into a zone? It changes your brain chemistry, and it happens to  _ everyone _ , even tops, so if you wanna take care of us, then you have to think about yourself too.”

 

Shiro’s mouth dropped open in surprise and, a little, in admiration, only to find it stuffed full of a chunk Lance tore off his protein “candy” bar, requiring him to chew for a while before he could say anything. 

 

“Dude, how much reading did you  _ do _ ?” questioned Lance, staring at Keith with raised eyebrows. Keith shrugged.

 

“Like I said, I’ve known what I wanted for a long time. I just...I didn’t think I was ever gonna actually get it. I never had a roommate stick around very long at the Garrison, and I took a lot of downloaded files with me when I left. I wanted to understand the stuff I thought about, especially after I found out it was a real thing and not just that there was something fucked up about me for liking pain, or being made to do stuff, or tied up or whatever.” 

 

“I thought it was just porn, not a thing that actual people did,” said Lance, looking fascinated, but not too distracted to feed Shiro another bite before he was quite finished with the first one.

 

“Lance,” said Keith, rolling his eyes, “porn actors are actual people too. And anyway, why would they make those kinds of movies if there weren’t enough people who wanted to watch them?”

 

“Huh. Guess I never thought about it that way,” mused Lance. Keith snorted again.

 

“Too busy just jerking off to it?”

 

“Well….yeah, and thinking I was maybe kinda broken,” admitted Lance. Keith shifted a little closer, leaning over the broad expanse of Shiro’s chest, pausing to offer him a bite of the crunchy, slightly spicy cracker-like pieces he’d been eating. His quick, clever fingers sank into Lance’s short hair and pulled gently.

 

“Dumbass,” he said softly, kissing the other boy more gently than Shiro thought he’d ever seen Keith do anything. “You’re not broken.  _ Tons _ of people are into way kinkier shit than spanking or bondage or submission. The only thing wrong with you is thinking about yourself like that. You’re just lucky Shiro’s not gonna let you think bullshit like that anymore. And neither will I. Right?” Keith glanced up at Shiro out of the corners of his eyes. Shiro managed to swallow and put an arm around Lance’s shoulders to pull him close, tilting his chin up with the tips of his fingers to kiss him as well.

 

“That’s exactly right. There’s nothing wrong with you. If I can accept that about myself, then so can you. Your lion chose  _ you _ , Lance, and so did I, and so does Keith even if it took the two of you a while to figure out what all that tension between you really meant. You are a  _ hero _ , and you’re beautiful, and if I hear you calling yourself  _ broken _ or any other derogatory things like that, do you want to know what will happen?” He whispered the last against Lance’s lips, felt the shiver run through the lean body pressed against him.

 

“Yes?” gasped Lance.

 

“Well, I’d have to punish you, wouldn’t I? Because no one’s allowed to say mean things about the people I care about. And then I’d have to tie you down so you couldn’t move an inch, couldn’t even squirm, and I’d make you feel  _ so good _ …”

 

“Ngh….Shiro,” panted Lance, arching against his body so that Shiro could feel the younger paladin’s cock hardening against his thigh.

 

“....For so long,” he continued. “And I wouldn’t let you come, not until you were begging and crying for it, not until you promised you’d never talk yourself down to me again...but then? Oh,  _ then… _ ”

 

“Fuck me,” gasped Lance, interrupting Shiro with a groan and cutting off his intoxicating threats with a hungry kiss. Shiro kissed him back for a minute, feeling Keith shift beside him and push himself up a little to get a better view. Shiro’s body agreed wholeheartedly with this plan, but the rest of him was well aware of how impulsive Lance could be.

 

“Lance....baby,” he said, pulling back for a little breathing room, “are you  _ sure _ that’s what you want? I know you said so a little while ago, but just earlier tonight you said you didn’t think you were ready. It’s okay to wait a little longer…”

 

“I’m sure. Okay yeah, maybe I was a little nervous, because I’ve never done anything with a guy until tonight, but let’s face it, I haven’t done very much more with a girl either. And anyway, part of the reason I said that was to make sure there wasn’t any argument about it and Keith could be first”

 

“You….what?” said Keith stupidly, gaping at him in surprise. “Since when have you given up something you want to me just to avoid an argument?” Lance looked at him and shifted around in embarrassment.

 

“Okay one, we almost never actually argued about anything  _ real _ or  _ important _ . It was always made-up shit that wasn’t the real thing we were arguing or fighting about or whatever, and I thought we figured that out already tonight? And B, I did say I was a  _ little _ nervous. I figured seeing how things...went? Worked? Whatever? Would help me decide. And also, lastly, you’ve known you wanted Shiro for like, forever, and I only figured it out  _ after _ we rescued him and got into space and formed Voltron and stuff. I mean, you left the Garrison because of him, and waited for him for so long, and I may be a  _ little tiny _ bit….outspoken...sometimes, but I’m not  _ selfish _ . I mean, geez,” said Lance. Keith kept staring at him for several long moments while Shiro tried not to laugh.

 

“One, B, and lastly? What even is your brain,” Keith replied, shaking his head and not even trying not to laugh. “Outspoken huh? A tiny bit? Okay, just give me a warning if you ever decide to actually be  _ obnoxious _ or anything. No, shut up. That was....really cool and unselfish of you, and I don’t...nobody’s ever done anything like that for me, and I don’t really know how to deal with it, so just fuck him already, Shiro. I’ve known him long enough to be able to tell the difference between a little nervous and scared. He’d be running his mouth a lot more if he was actually scared about it.”

 

“It’s the new math,” said Lance loftily. “Just you wait, It’s gonna catch o….hngh!”  Whatever else he’d been planning to way was cut off by Shiro pulling him deftly underneath his muscular body and covering Lance’s mouth with his own, kissing him deeply, his tongue teasing softly at the blue paladin’s lips for a moment before sweeping inside to just...claim. Shiro licked into his mouth, learned the shape of his teeth, stroked the roof of his mouth, curled around his own tongue and beckoned it to tangle with Shiro’s. Lance moaned helplessly into the kiss, his body arching against Shiro’s powerful frame, pushing hard against him...not to struggle, just to feel all that strength that he’d fantasized about so many times pressed against all his skin. Shiro’s body didn’t budge  _ at all _ and it made Lance dizzy with want, fantasies of Shiro holding him down, manhandling him into whatever position he liked, easily overpowering and restraining him….all of it swirling in his brain at once, still almost unable to believe that he could actually have those things. God, he wanted all of it right now, all at once. Being at least more patient than Keith had often been one of the thoughts he consoled himself with when he was feeling a little bummed after Keith had bested him in training...again….being better at thinking things through and finding alternate solutions to just flying in bashing things to hell...but then, in that moment, kissing Shiro, he kind of understood Keith’s impatience.

 

Shiro chuckled softly and gently bit his way down Lance’s jaw and neck, sucking red marks into his skin, cautiously making sure they were where his jacket and the collar of his under-armor suit would conceal them. Lance whimpered and tilted his head back to give Shiro better access.

 

“Such a good boy,” murmured Shiro against his skin, lips tickling and voice vibrating against Lance’s sensitive skin. “God, your skin is so soft. I knew it would be. Wanted to find out for so long.”

 

“He doesn’t even have tan lines. I just thought he spent a lot of time in the sun,” said Keith, reaching out to brush his fingers up Lance’s arm where it clung to Shiro’s shoulder. “It’s kind of hot.”

 

“Hhnn...my...my abuela is Cuban,” stuttered Lance, understandably a little distracted as Shiro bent his head to close his mouth over a dark nipple and suck softly before slowly and carefully applying pressure with his teeth, biting down harder with gradual pressure until Lance is a moaning, writhing mess, and somehow Shiro knew to stop just on the right side of pain where it was enough but not too much. He nipped and bit and sucked hard, changing over to abuse the other side too until Lance’s nipples were aching and throbbing and sensitive and it felt so good he hiccupped out tiny sobbing gasps, squirming under Shiro and arching his chest up to meet the bigger man’s hot mouth. Finally, with a hum that sounded both pleased and reluctant at the same time, Shiro pulled back and swiveled his head to look over at Keith.

 

“There are gonna be times when things are about just two of us at a time, but tonight, the first time, isn’t one of them. We may have already had our time together, but you’re as much a part of this as Lance was for you. How would you like to be involved? Tell me what you’d like, and then we’ll make sure it’s okay with Lance,” he said softly. Keith’s cheeks and ears turned a little red, but it was more from the unaccustomed and awkward pleasure of being so  _ included _ that it made him feel uncomfortable than from actual embarrassment.

 

“Well, I already sucked him off while you were fucking me brainless,” mused Keith, which made Lance squeak a little in embarrassment and hide his face in Shiro’s shoulder. “It he wants to return the favor, then I guess that’s okay, but….”

 

“But,” prompted Shiro inexorably.

 

“I’d….I’d kind of like to hold his hands while you get him ready, and I’d kinda like you to really take your time. He gets so blabbermouthed and twitchy every time any of us have mentioned bondage so I know it’s something he wants really bad. I think you should just totally wreck him and see if we can actually make him speechless for once. I mean, if he’s okay with that…” He trailed off at the end, the awkward body language and way he bit his lip and glanced away belying the hot way his eyes roved over as much of Lance’s body as he could see, pinned as he was under Shiro.

 

“Th-that’s okay with me, yeah. Totally okay. Yup. Completely chill. I’m so chill with that I’m Antarctica, my dudes. Because that’s. That/s Yeah, okay….I’m…”

 

“Shiro, I don’t guess you have a gag around here anywhere huh?” growled Keith. Shiro laughed, shutting Lance up with another of those searing, soul-baring, brain-melting kisses.

 

“Nope. I don’t actually have  _ anything _ when it comes to toys or stuff like that. We’re going to have to start a collection….um. Somehow.”

 

“I bet the castle’s replicators can make some stuff,” Keith thought out loud. Shiro looked a little scandalised.

 

“I’m not sure that’s appropriate use of castle resources, Keith.” Keith just looked at him and smiled noncommittally. Lance wasn’t sure their votes counted when Shiro was supposed to be the one in charge, but he was feeling wholeheartedly on Keith’s side on this one. A thousand and twelve percent, yessir. Of course, when it came to actually programming the replicators, Pidge was the only one of them who’d figured out how to talk to the damn things so they produced what was actually asked for, and he didn’t think that was a conversation he was prepared for. Or possibly ever would be. Then again, Pidge’s mind was sometimes a disturbingly evil place, so she might be terrifyingly happy to help, but he didn’t know if he wanted to know  _ that _ either. Then, however, his ability to think was abruptly sliced off at the knees when Shiro manhandled him  _ exactly  _  the way he’d fantasized about, effortlessly yanking him up off the bed and onto his knees, pressed against the bigger paladin’s ripped, solidly muscled chest and abs with one hand around his back holding him secure and the other hand tangled in his hair, tugging his head back to plunder his throat with more careful bites and sucks that make the blood rise to the surface with enough sting that he knew he’d have a spectacular set of hickeys to show for it later. He wished just a little bit that Shiro wouldn’t be quite so careful about making sure the marks wouldn’t show over his clothes. Part of him, the part that doesn’t think before he speaks, thought it would be hot for everyone to see the marks both of them have left on his body, the ones on Keith’s body and know they belonged to Shiro. To each other.

 

He hadn’t even felt or heard Keith fucking  _ move _ when he was gently laid back down on the bed and strong hands closed around his wrists, jerking them roughly above his head and pinning them together in Keith’s lap, the red paladin’s thighs framing his head. To take his mind off his impending doom and also to get back at Keith a little for teasing him when Shiro had ordered him to hold the other boy, he turned his head to the side and licked wetly at the soft skin on the inside of Keith’s left inner thigh. Keith sucked in a sharp breath, but his grip didn’t loosen. Lance struggled against the hold, craning his neck so he could suck that exquisitely soft flesh (and oh God, it was so fucking hot that someone he’d always thought of as all hard, sharp edges and too-hot-to-touch boundaries could possibly have such silky soft skin in so many places) into his mouth and sink his teeth into that flesh. Keith growled, the pleasure and threat too tangled up in each other to separate.

 

“Hah….oh, you  _ fucker _ ,” gasped Keith, but Lance couldn’t help but notice that the other boy closed his legs a little tighter around Lance’s body. It held him a little more immobile, but it also made it easier for Lance’s mouth to reach. 

 

Shiro rumbled out a low growl. Lance yelped as his Galra arm suddenly scooped under both his knees and lifted, folding him abruptly in half, arching his back and raising his hips off the bed, baring his ass to the air. A quick, stinging series of slaps peppered the stretched skin of his bare bottom, not stinging enough to truly  _ hurt _ , but enough to make him buck and yelp. Shiro lowered his legs and gazed down at him sternly, his silvery eyes sparkling with delight at the same time that something darker swirled in their depths.

 

“You can have the same choice Keith did, little boy,” said Shiro in a low, rumbly voice. “If you want to be made to behave, I’ll be  _ very  _ happy to show you I can make you do it. Or…” He leaned down close to Lance’s flushed face, his lips brushing the younger paladin’s ear, his voice a low, rumbling burr in his chest as he whispered, blushing even at himself for the filthy things that poured out of his mouth...but Lance was such a vocal person, he made an educated guess that words would get to the blue paladin just about as well as actually touching him would, not to mention he was already aware that a strategically utilized dirty phrase from his usually clean-spoken lips could turn Keith into mush and he knew, even if they didn’t, that they had a great deal in common….”Or you can be a good boy for me and stop fighting your restraints.” He glanced up at Keith and winked at him, nothing that his restraint system seemed perfectly happy to be there, “and I’ll use my hands and mouth on you in places you’ve never felt before. I’ll make you desperate for me to touch you more, because I mean to make it last a long time. I’ll open you up for me so slow, sweet boy, so slow that it won’t hurt at all, make you so ready for me until you beg and beg for it….and oh Lance, you want to beg so bad, don’t you? You want to beg for your master’s touch, beg to be allowed to come, because you’ve already shown me how perfect you can be for me that way, begging for permission to come while Keith sucked you off when you hadn’t even been told to. I’ll make you want it so bad you’ll be crying for it. I’ll make it as good for you as I can, if you put yourself in our hands and give me the control over your body that I think you’ve been dying to give the right person. Whatever you choose, baby, because I won’t force you to do this if you’re not ready for it, but if you really are, by the time I push my cock into your tight little hole, you’ll be almost sobbing for it, you’ll be so ready. It’s up to you, and there’s no wrong answer this time.”

 

Lance whimpered, his eyes rolling back in his head a little at the heady spell Shiro wove around him with his intoxicating words, so perfect it almost felt like an actual caress against his fevered skin.

 

“That,” he panted, letting his wrists go lax in Keith’s grasp, changing his sharp bites into a soft kiss to the ring of teeth marks forming on his fellow paladin’s inner thigh. “Oh, that please. I’ll be good, Shiro. I can do it, you’ll see. I promise I can. Please….please just touch me.” There he went, babbling again when his head was telling him to just shut the hell up, but it was still hard to imagine Shiro wasn’t going to change his mind, that Lance was just an add-on when Shiro and Keith were so obviously a perfect fit for each other and it was hard to see how he, with his skinny limbs and shitty hand-to-hand skills and blabbermouth and ordinariness, could possibly compare to them. And yet Shiro was looking at him like he was the most perfect and precious thing in the whole world. And Keith’s hands on his wrists were firm and too strong for him to break free from and yet he was being really careful not to let Lance do that without hurting him and why would he go to so much effort if he didn’t want to?

 

“I won’t let go,” said Keith solemnly. It felt like some kind of vitally important vow despite the fact that solemn was sort of Keith’s default expression….when he wasn’t looking annoyed or impatient or downright pissed. 

 

“Wh….ah….why?” asked Lance, actually wanting to know the answer even when Shiro’s mouth moved lower, skimming over his abs, his teeth softly scraping skin, his tongue gently laving away any potential sting left behind. 

 

“At first I wasn’t sure,” said Keith quietly, surprising the hell out of him by actually answering the question despite the current circumstances. “I wanted to be pissed off. Jealous of you taking up any of Shiro’s attention. I’ve known….,” He paused and bit his lip, eyes sliding away again in discomfort. His body shifted, though his grip on Lance’s wrists didn’t let up at all. He took a deep breath. It was pretty obvious who anyone who spent more than about ten minutes in the guy’s presence that talking about his feelings wasn’t one of his skillsets. Like, at all.`Keith sighed. “I’ve known since I met him that Shiro was it for me. That...all the things I thought about, and dreamed about...I wanted to give everything to him. To give him  _ me. _ I didn’t think he’d ever want me that way.” He huffed out an amazed sort of laugh. “I mean, it seemed like if you looked up the word ‘vanilla’ in a dictionary file, there’d be a picture of Shiro next to it.”

 

“Hey!” Shiro lifted his head from nipping his way down Lance’s belly to look a little affronted. Keith sent him a small but unbearably sweet smile.

 

“All I’m saying is you hid it  _ really _ well, Shirogane,” he said, the smile morphing into a smirk. Then he looked back down at Lance. “I don’t know if I can explain it. It’s just...when I realized that  _ you’re _ Shiro’s too….and you are. You really are. I can see it. It’s just...that part of me, that belongs to him, it was like, okay. It means you belong too. We both do. And then it was just….easy. You’re part of what I gotta have now. It’s okay if it’s not that easy for you. I’ll...try not to get butt-hurt about it or anything.”

 

“N-no….I actually…..nn...think I get that,” said Lance, squirming because Shiro had gone right back to the kissing and licking and biting thing and was slowly sucking a bruise into his hip right where it met his thigh, which was very, very distracting and not. Helping. With the whole Lance being able to communicate in words that made actual sense. Like, at  _ all _ . “I...I think the….ah, Shiro! R-reason I got so mad at you was be-because…. _ fuck _ ...wanting both of you was just too confusing for my brain. Not that my body had any problem with it at all,” he muttered at the end. Keith grinned down at him and squeezed his wrists gently.

 

“Lots of late night jerk-off sessions wondering if you were going insane for thinking about that kinda shit?”

 

“God, yes,” moaned Lance, which was directed both at Keith’s question and Shiro’s tongue teasing closer and closer to his  _ very _ erect dick. 

 

“I won’t let go,” Keith repeated, and through the fog of arousal rising up to interfere more and more rapidly with his higher brain functions, Lance was still pretty sure Keith didn’t just mean his wrists. It felt like a bigger promise, like the kinds of promises his family made, to be there for each other and stand up for each other and for the first time in months, Lance didn’t feel homesick at all. He nodded breathlessly and turned his head to the side, moaning eagerly as Shiro’s tongue crept a little closer, mouthing at the inside of Keith’s thigh again.

 

“If you want to struggle, it’s cool,” said Keith, sounding a bit breathless himself. “I can still hold you. Just….um….just say….Red. Yeah. Say red if I hurt you, and I’ll change my grip.”

 

To Lance’s great dismay, Shiro stopped what his mouth was doing and lifted his head to smile proudly at Keith. Lance cracked open an eye, both of them having fallen closed with the dizzying pleasure of being held captive while Shiro prepared to ravish him (Geez, he might possibly have read waaay too many of his older sister’s cheesy romance holo-novels before he’d left for the Garrison). He could practically hear Shiro thinking at Keith,  _ Look at you, playing so well with others. _ Fine, so maybe it  _ was _ a pretty big breakthrough, but come on! Long,  _ long _ anticipated loss of virginity impending right here guys?

 

“That’s a good idea for a stop-word, Keith,” said Shiro fondly.

 

“Safeword,” muttered Keith, turning his head to hide his blush at Shiro’s praise. It made Lance feel a lot better, knowing he wasn’t the only one who turned to mush when Shiro praised him. “They’re called safewords. On Earth anyway, most people use the stoplight system….like with traffic control? Green for go, yellow for slow down, and red for stop. Guess I really shoulda told you to say yellow if I hurt you, cause red’s actually supposed to be for stopping the whole...um...scene? Because you can’t take anymore or you’re freaking out over something or whatever.”

 

“That’s great. We’ll do that then. Can you remember that, Lance? Don’t say red unless you need everything to stop. If Keith’s hold on you hurts, tell him yellow and we’ll readjust. If you need everything to stop, say red. And we’ll all stop, no matter what.”

 

“Got it, great, stoplight, sounds good,” panted Lance. “Green.”

 

“Huh?” Shiro frowned at him, looking a little confused.

 

“That means go, right? Means I’m okay with everything? So yeah. Green. Green, green, green, gr…”

 

“I think that’s Lance’s version of kink communication for ‘why the hell did you stop’,” said Keith, smirking.

 

“Ah,” said Shiro, smiling. “Well  _ I _ think that Lance needs to be taught a little lesson in patience. Got a good hold on him?” He looked up at Keith with a smile that was surprisingly wicked from someone usually as kind and gentle as Shiro always acted around all of them.

 

“You can count on it,” Keith grinned back.

 

“I’ve always known I could,” Shiro said softly. It made Keith’s breath catch in his throat. Then Shiro pinned Lance’s hips to the bed and bent his head, licking painstakingly slowly up the other boy’s straining cock with the flat of his tongue. Lance yanked against Keith’s hold on his wrists and cried out.

 

“Oh god!”

 

Shiro swirled his tongue slowly around the head of Lance’s cock, lapping up the moisture leaking from the slit at the top. Then he stopped. Lance whined and tried to buck his hips up to get more of that amazing friction, but with Keith and Shiro holding him down, he could only writhe in frustration. Shiro reached for the bottle of impromptu lube and squeezed some out onto his fingers. Then, as his hand slid slowly up between Lance’s legs, he bent his head again and sucked softly on just the head of the blue paladin’s erection, still holding him down easily with his prosthetic hand and distracting him from what the other hand was doing. Lance panted and whimpered, pulling uselessly against Keith’s hands.

 

When the tip of Shiro’s finger brushed against his asshole, Lance stiffened and sucked in a deep breath. Shiro let go of his hip to rub gentle circles on his hip.

 

“Easy,” he said softly. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’ll go as slow as you need me to, and if you change your mind, you can just say so.”

 

“No! I want to. It just...feels weird,” muttered Lance awkwardly. Keith snorted with badly suppressed mirth. He leaned down, folding his upper body a little so he could lay his cheek next to the other boy’s and whisper in his ear.

 

“Give it time,” he said softly, lips curving into an uncharacteristic smile when Lance shivered a little at the tickle of his lips and voice against his cheek. “It felt weird to me too the first time I tried it on myself. But only for a few seconds. There’s nothing like it. You’re gonna feel so good when Shiro touches you just right. It’s like that split second right before you come, but it just lasts and lasts for however long he rubs and touches you there. I can come like that. Maybe you’ll be able to too, maybe not, but it’s still gonna feel so amazing you’ll think you’re gonna explode. Go nuts with crazy pleasure. Besides, this is Shiro, and you know you trust him, even if you don’t trust me.”

 

“Th...that good, huh?” said Lance, his hips rocking without him realizing it because all the while, Shiro was very gently rubbing one slick finger in light, slow circles around the tightly clenched pucker of his hole. His eyes widened slightly as Keith nodded with a soft chuckle, stopped talking, and he became aware of the sensation. “Ngh...Shiro…”

 

“Okay?” asked Shiro in a low, husky voice. Damn, but Lance was coming to love that particular tone in Shiro’s voice more than just about anything else in the world. He’d liked Shiro’s voice from the beginning, how deep and confident and commanding it could sound. But that low growl in it, laced with desire and affection just for him? Whole new ballgame. Shiro’s voice was aural sex. He bit his lip against a soft whimper and nodded. Very slowly, Shiro pressed the tip of his finger inside Lance’s hole, softened now with slick lube. 

 

There was no pain. One finger, even as thick as Shiro’s fingers were, wasn’t enough to actually hurt him. It did feel weird. At first, not a lot different from the physical exam he’d had to get just like everyone else before entry into the Garrison where a tech in a white lab coat put a small digital probe up his ass and asked him to turn his head and cough, except the probe had been considerably smaller. He vaguely recalled from his history lessons that doctors on Earth had used to do prostate checks with their fingers, only because of all the many off-color jokes that had erupted in the classroom at that bit of info (ok, so maybe quite a few of them had come from him. Sue him. He’d been a lot more in the closet...or denial...about his bisexuality in high school). The similarity ended pretty quickly though. For one thing, Shiro was a  _ lot _ slower, gently pressing just the tip of his finger inside, then pulling back, then very, very slowly pushing in a little farther. It gave him time to concentrate on the rapidly warming, slick, glide of Shiro’s finger softly pressing and tugging at the rim of his hole and to realize that ok, wow, there were actually a  _ lot _ of nerve endings in that part of his body. He squirmed despite his efforts not to and turned his face to press it against Keith’s leg.

 

“You can bite if you need to,” said Keith softly. “You won’t need to yet, but when he starts adding fingers….if you want to, all I’m saying is it’s cool. I...sorta like it.” Lance nodded shortly, then let out an embarrassingly unmanly squeak when Shiro finally pushed his entire finger inside him up to the knuckle. 

 

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” asked the black paladin in concern. Lance shook his head again, not quite able to bring himself to speak. It was too weird. Too embarrassing. Too awkward Too exposing. Too….too…. _ Oh, Jesus, Mary and Joseph shove him in an airlock and out into space he was never gonna breathe again anyway oh fuck….. _ Shiro curled his finger as he dragged it slowly out of Lance’s body, and on its way out, his fingertip dragged across that hidden nerve bundle somewhere sort of under his belly button and the sensation of thrumming, spine-bowing pleasure sucked all the fucking air out of his lungs. Of course, even being unable to breathe couldn’t render Lance speechless.

 

“Oh god, oh god, Shiro, there, do that again, holy fuck, Keith, you asshole, why didn’t you tell me that felt so awesome, fuck, please, again, shit, I have been jerking off wrong my entire life, that’s….Ngh!” 

 

“And that’s  _ my _ fault? I shoulda walked up to you on the day we met in Aviation History and said, ‘Hi, my name is Keith. Stick your finger up your ass when you jack off. It’ll feel better’?”  Keith asked a little incredulously. 

 

“Yes!” cried Lance, writhing uncontrollably because Shiro  _ was _ doing it again, was teasingly curling that one finger to brush gently over that, sweet, sweet spot as he slowly and carefully pumped it in and out of Lance’s body with all the speed of a tree sloth scratching its ass in its sleep. Then, through the haze of golden pleasure suffusing his veins, Keith’s words registered and he lifted his head. “Ha! I  _ knew _ you remembered me!” Keith rolled his eyes.

 

“Yes Lance. I remembered you. Shiro, if he can think about that, you might be taking things a  _ little _ too slow down there.”

 

“Oh, he’s getting slow whether he likes it or not, but I think I can do something about his  _ focus _ ,” grinned Shiro. He crooked his finger inside Lance….thinking to himself that it was a little surprising how different he felt inside than Keith, but chalking it up to a half-assed health class….and leaned down to suck the head of the boy’s cock into his mouth. Lance made a strangled sound and stopped talking. His spine bowed and his thighs shook around Shiro’s shoulders. Shiro chuckled around him, sending vibrations through his achingly hard dick, and slid his mouth down a little lower. 

 

“Shiro! Ah...d-don’t stop,” cried Lance, then wailed in frustration when Shiro lifted his head and looked down at him smugly.

 

“Like I told Keith earlier; you just relax. I’m driving,” he said sternly, but he did start pumping his finger into Lance’s ass a little faster. Lance  whimpered and rocked his hips against the easy thrusts, pouting a little.

 

“Keith was right. You  _ are _ meaner than everybody thinks you are.”

 

“Keep mouthing off, little boy, and you’ll find out how mean I can be,” growled Shiro softly, smiling crookedly and giving one rough, deep thrust that made Lance cry out again and jerk against Keith’s hold on him. “Thought you were gonna be good for me?”

 

“Ahh! No...no, I can. I mean, I am. Shiro, please...I...I need  _ more. _ ”

 

“Oh sweetheart, you’re going to get more. So much more. I’m gonna make this good for you, I promise, but I’m also going to make it last. I want to see what you look like when you’re begging and desperate and so needy. I’ve thought about you like that for a long time now. Thought about how pretty you’d be begging me to fuck you. To let you come. To make you feel so good that you just can’t take any more. How much can you take for me, sweet boy? Can you be good, Lance, and let me have you the way I want you?”

 

Tears pricked the corners of Lance’s eyes as a swell of emotion rose up and nearly choked him with its intensity. There was really only one answer.

 

“Anything,” he whispered, his voice too wrecked to speak out loud. Shiro smiled.

 

****

 

“Please, please, please,” Lance sobbed, his fingers opening and closing in desperate spasms as Keith pinned his wrists to the bed, folded over him and biting kisses into his collarbones while Lance turned his face into Keith’s thigh. Bite marks littered the pale, soft skin against his slack, open mouth. Through the haze in his brain, he could feel the hardness of Keith’s cock at the back of his neck. Shiro pressed three fingers against his prostate, sucking very gently on his erection while his free hand squeezed hard around the base of Lance’s cock, preventing him from coming for the fifth time. Or maybe the twenty-seventh. His balls ached with the need for release. His asshole felt sloppy and loose and wet, slick with lube and hypersensitive from being stretched open so carefully and so slowly. Shiro had been prepping him for what seemed like  _ hours _ , and Lance wasn’t sure he could even remember his own name anymore.

 

“You’re so beautiful,” soothed Shiro, pulling back from his throbbing, weeping cock, taking the mindblowing pressure off his sweet spot to gently spread his fingers  _ again _ , stretching him open even wider, then wider yet until Lance keened softly at the slight burn. “You’re being so good for me, baby.”

 

The praise was a balm to Lance’s soul, but the relentless teasing and being brought to the edge over and over again was torture to his overwrought body. Tears streaked his face, drying stiff and itchy on his skin. He’d always been kind of a crier, any time his emotions got too strong. He cried at stupid romcoms. He cried when he was too frustrated to think clearly. Sometimes he cried when he was angry. And apparently he cried when he was so turned on he didn’t think he could stand it anymore. 

 

“You...you look really good. Like this,” said Keith. The words sounded awkward, but it didn’t sound like he didn’t mean what he was saying, rather that it was just such an un-Keith thing to say that he didn’t really know how to say it right. Lance’s poor brain didn’t know how it was possible to feel so...so….well, maybe  _ loved _ was a little premature, and  _ cherished _ made him feel awfully girly, but both were still pretty fucking accurate...and so frustrated and desperate at the same time. But he did. 

 

“Please,” he said again, because it was all he could think about, surrounded by them like that.

 

“Please what, baby? Tell me what you want,” urged Shiro gently, in a tone that seemed both comforting and absolutely commanding at the same time. He pulled his fingers out of Lance’s body with a filthy squelching sound and rubbed easy circles on his thigh. Lance whined in his throat at the loss of stimulation, but it made it a little easier to think. Of course, it didn’t make it any easier to say the words, but at least he was so desperate for Shiro now that the desire overrode his inhibitions, and he thought….he hoped...that he and Keith were way, way past the point of either one of them having a damn thing to tease the other about concerning tonight’s events. Besides, Shiro had said he wanted Lance to beg, and Lance just...really, really wanted Shiro to get what  _ he _ wanted.

 

“Please, please fuck me. I can’t take it anymore. I want to...to feel you. Inside me. I’m not afraid. Shiro. I...I  _ trust _ you. I’m gonna die. Please. Please, just...now. Please now. I...I want to be yours too.”

 

****

 

Shiro felt something squeeze tight in his chest. Almost like the same breathless sense of suffocation he  got right before a flashback set upon him or when he woke up from one of his nightmares, except it wasn’t a bad feeling this time. His plan to tease Lance for a long time before proceeding with anything had been twofold. Of course he loved the idea of this loudmouthed, overconfident young man coming undone for him, but he’d also felt that if he made sure to take his time, it would give Lance the chance to be sure (and to put a stop to things if he wasn’t) but also to get him turned-on enough not to be nervous. He hadn’t expected such heartfelt honesty, or the breathtaking squeeze of baffled affection and protectiveness it would arouse in him. His smile softened. He leaned over, propping himself on one elbow so he wouldn’t squash the smaller paladin with his weight, and kissed him deeply. Lance moaned, opening his mouth instantly to the kiss, his tongue tangling messily with Shiro’s, making small, urgent noises into his mouth. Shiro pulled back after several long moments, grabbing Keith by the back of the neck to kiss him as well.

 

“Thank you,” he murmured against the red paladin’s lips. “You’re helping this go even better than I hoped.” Keith’s ears turned a little bit pink. He dropped his eyes and nodded awkwardly.

 

“It’s...sort of more fun than I expected,” he said softly, looking down at Lance with an expression of bemused affection, like he could hardly believe what he was feeling. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles against the soft skin on the insides of Lance’s wrists. The skin was red where Lance had pulled and struggled against Keith’s hold, but Shiro was pleased to see that there was no sign of any bruising. 

 

He reached for the much-used bottle of Altean salve, reflecting that he was going to have to ask Coran for another bottle a lot sooner than expected at this rate, and squeezed some out into his hand for the second time that night to slick it over his erection. He wasn’t sure if they were going to be the death of him, or if he was just making up for all the raging hormones he’d somehow managed to skip when he’d gone through puberty. Settling himself between Lance’s splayed thighs, he lifted the long, lanky legs up onto his own hips, tilting Lance’s pelvis up and giving himself easier access. 

 

“Yes, please, hurry, now...oh, now,” babbled Lance. Shiro had to agree with him. Putting the younger boy into this state had been fun, and kind of empowering, and hot as hell, but it had made Shiro pretty eager to get on with things too. Hooking his Galra hand under one of Lance’s knees, he pushed his leg back. Then, taking his own cock in his other hand, he slid the head slowly up the blue paladin’s exposed crevice until it caught on the rim of his slippery, loosened hole. Lance writhed and babbled out more nonsense….some of which might have possibly been in Spanish, as Shiro very slowly eased his hips forward. He’d spent a lot longer preparing Lance than he had Keith. They might both have been into certain kinds of pain, but Shiro was pretty damn certain that Keith was into a bit more of it than Lance was, and there was a big difference between a little spanking and losing your virginity if you weren’t prepared for it.  _ No _ , he thought with a small shake of his head.  _ This is not the time to think about that.  _ This was, in fact, so many worlds away from  _ that _ it was a completely different Galaxy. 

 

****

 

Keith watched the expression on Lance’s mobile face as Shiro’s cock slowly sank inside his body. He saw the tiny frown appear between his eyebrows when the broad, fat head of Shiro’s really impressive cock began to breach the tightest part of him.

 

“Easy,” he said softly, changing his grip so that he was holding Lance’s hands instead of restraining his wrists. “Don’t tense up. No, no….Lance, listen to my voice. Push against it. I know it sounds weird, just trust me.”

 

“It huh-hurts,” whimpered Lance. Fresh tears sprang up in his bright blue eyes. Fuck, how could anybody be so pretty when they cried? 

 

“I know,” whispered Keith, glancing up at Shiro a little anxiously, because he didn’t want to be like, stepping on Shiro’s toes or anything, but he was surprised to see Shiro smile and nod at him, so he kept going. “I know it hurts, but it won’t in a minute. Do as I say. Push a little. You’ll see. You can do it.”

 

Lance’s frown deepened, and Keith could see his stomach muscles flex as he did his best to obey. It seemed contradictory, that attempting to push Shiro out would make it easier for him to actually thrust  _ in _ , but Keith knew from research and now from personal experience that it was true. Lance let  out a small, pained cry as Shiro’s cock slid past his sphincter muscle, but then he drew a shaky breath. A few shining tears rolled down his face, but the discomfort on his face began to fade. Shiro held very still, waiting.

 

“There you go. See? That was just it. It’s getting better, yeah?” Lance opened his eyes, which he’d squeezed shut tight, to glance up at Keith for just a moment, then he looked down his own body to where Shiro was joined to him. He nodded hesitantly.

 

“It’s….going away a little. Can you…,” he swallowed hard, “I mean. I think...a little more?”

 

“Just tell me if you need me to be still,” said Shiro, his voice sounding a bit strained. He eased his hips forward another inch. Lance sucked in a big gulp of air. Keith knew exactly how he felt. How full it felt. How right at first it seemed like there was no way Shiro’s dick was going to fit. That it ached, burned a little. It surprised him to wonder how it felt for Shiro. He knew how his own ass felt around his fingers. What would it be like to push his dick inside someone like that? He couldn’t imagine he’d be able to be as patient about it as Shiro was. 

 

“Oh,” whispered Lance.

 

“Okay, baby?” asked Shiro, brushing his hand up and down the top of Lance’s thigh draped over his own. 

 

“Y-yeah. S-shit. So big. But I think...yeah. I’m okay. Mm...more?” And he moaned as Shiro carefully pressed himself the rest of the way inside. Fuck, his voice sounded really good. Keith couldn’t help wondering if he could make Lance make sounds like that sometime. 

 

Lance gasped, his eyes flying open wide as Shiro’s dick, just because it was so thick, pressed against his oversensitized sweet spot on the way in. When Shiro was fully seated, hips pressed firmly against Lance’s ass, and he would have held himself still, giving the other time to adjust, Lance wrapped his free leg around Shiro’s waist and dug his heel in.

 

“Don’t stop,” he panted. “Do...do that again! Please, Shiro, it already doesn’t hurt anymore!” He yanked against Keith’s hands in frustration, growling a little, which sounded absurdly cute coming from him. Keith looked to Shiro for what to do. “I want to touch you,” cried Lance, sounding almost distraught.

 

“It’s okay, Keith. You can let go now. You did a really good job. You didn’t let him hurt himself, and he was pulling pretty hard a few times,” said Shiro. Keith let go of Lance’s hands, and the other boy instantly reached for Shiro, his fingers digging into broad, muscular shoulders. He made a frustrated sound.

 

“Ungh! I...I want to touch both of you….”

 

“I...well, I have an idea, if we can rearrange real quick?” offered Keith hesitantly.

 

“It’s okay with me, as long as it doesn’t hurt him,” said Shiro, still managing not to move even though Lance was grinding his hips down on his deeply buried cock.

 

“It won’t,” said Keith. He hooked his elbows under Lance’s arms and lifted the other boy’s upper body, slipping deftly under him so that Lance’s back rested against his chest and his head rolled back onto Keith’s shoulder. Lance blinked up at him in surprise.

 

“Dude,” he whispered, “you’re so much fuckin’ stronger than you look.”

 

“I had a lot of time to work out in the desert,” said Keith, grinning as he wrapped his arms around Lance, pressing bitey little kisses along his shoulder. With one arm, he supported Lance’s torso. He nodded at Shiro.

 

“Okay. This is good. I think.”

 

“Ready?” asked Shiro, looking into Lance’s eyes searchingly, wanting to be sure. 

 

“I will die right here if you don’t move, I swear to god, and leave you two to explain my corpse with your dick up my ass if you don’t,” complained Lance. Shiro chuckled. Keith pressed his face into Lance’s sweaty hair and laughed.

 

When Shiro rolled his hips, Keith felt Lance’s body shudder. His cock slid against the sweat-slick skin of Lance’s lower back. That...hadn’t been his intention, but the friction felt so good. He rocked his hips gently. Shiro pulled out far enough so that the head of his cock rolled over Lance’s prostate again as requested. Keith wondered if he’d sounded that filthy when Shiro had fucked him. It was really, really hot. He hoped he hadn’t sounded stupid or something. Lance’s head tossed back and forth against his shoulder as Shiro began to move a little more strongly, fucking into him with slow, deep thrusts. The blue paladin’s cock, dark red and weeping, bounced against his flat stomach every time Shiro bottomed out, smearing wetness over his dark tan skin. His cries and moans took on an almost desperate edge as Shiro moved a little faster, a little harder. His words were garbled nonsense, pleas and helpless cries. It almost looked like he was in pain. 

 

Keith had never told anyone….who would he have told anyway….but he’d always been able to make himself come from just his own fingers in his ass. Sometimes he ejaculated when he did, and sometimes not, but it had always been easy for him. He did remember reading though, that this wasn’t actually usual for most guys. Oh. He trailed the hand not supporting Lance down over taut, silky brown skin, over trembling abs, and circled his fingers around Lance’s painfully hard cock, stroking lightly. Lance sobbed out his name, turning his head to mouth at the side of Keith’s neck. Keith heard Shiro gasp. Their sounds, Lance’s response to his touch, went straight to his own dick and his hips sped up of their own free will. 

 

“Keith,” growled Shiro through gritted teeth, “faster.”

 

He couldn’t help himself. A soft whine escaped his lips at the order, his fingers tightening around Lance’s shaft and moving faster. Their bodies moved in synch, muscles and breath straining for the pleasure that built between them. Keith could feel it like it was almost a living entity, binding him to the two others in a way that should have frightened him, but only made him feel even more than ever as if he’d finally come home. Lance threw his head back and screamed. Shiro’s deep groan rumbled deep in his chest. Keith pressed his mouth to Lance’s shoulder and bit down, shouting as he came against his lover’s back while Lance’s come spilled over his hand and Lance’s stomach. Shiro’s hips thrust hard once, twice, three more times before he shoved himself as deeply inside Lance’s body as he could get and shuddered. 

 

They collapsed together in a sweaty, sticky, tangled jumble of limbs and thundering hearts. For a few minutes, Keith didn’t think he’d ever want to move from this spot. But eventually the other two got a little heavy. And Shiro pulled out to avoid causing Lance any pain. Lance groaned and flopped flat on the bed, taking up way more than his share of it. 

 

“You’re being a bed hog,” said Keith, snickering a little and shoving weakly at him. Lance cracked open one eye.

 

“Shut up. The freshly deflowered get preferential treatment.”

 

“In case you’ve forgotten, I happen to qualify for that too. It wasn’t  _ that _ long ago,” retorted Keith.

 

“Very well. You can have a corner,” said Lance dreamily, and didn’t move at all.

 

“I’m going to start calling you princess in front of everybody if you don’t move,” threatened Keith.

 

“Hey,” said Lance hotly.

 

“I’m gonna spank everybody in this bed that isn’t me if you two don’t behave,” threatened Shiro. Two pairs of eyes glanced at him speculatively. Again. Shiro sighed and reached for one of the damp cloths he hadn’t used earlier. “Tomorrow,” he amended, then forced his fatigued body to clean them all up and rearrange them into a pile that made room for everyone. 

 

“Promise?” asked Keith, grinning. Shiro rolled his eyes and pulled them close.

 

“Only if you’re good.”

 

Keith gave him a terrifyingly angelic smile and laid his head down. He was still smiling when he fell asleep, feeling safe for the first time in as long as he could remember.

 

Lance fell asleep without feeling homesick for the first time since they’d left earth.

 

And Shiro? Shiro fell asleep. And the nightmares didn’t come.


End file.
